Becker Books

The Truth, (I'm Ten, I'm Smart and I Know Everything!) was a wonderful book that brought back so many great memories and also reminded me of how 10 year old girls think.

Being a mother of 3 boys, it also gave me valuable insight that I could teach and share with my children. This is a must read for all parents of pre-teens and early teens. You get so much from reading this book from humor to life lessons. Crying one moment and laughing out loud the next!

Even though the generations have changed the mind of a 10 year old and the thoughts and actions are similar to today's age. This would be a great book for parents and children to read to begin the bridge of communication over the generations.

Definitely ALL THUMBS UP!

I must admit, when I first picked up my copy of "The Truth" at age 14, I didn't expect to find the title's promise within its pages.
I hadn't expected to be able to relate with the book either. After all, I was a teenage boy living in the 21st century, and the book revolved around a younger female subject living in the 1950s. After skipping the preface and reading the first few journal entries, I put the down the book and left it to sit for another year.

Shortly before my 16th birthday, I began reading the book again with a new interest.
This time around, I was fully engaged in the little girl's story as she transitioned from childhood into adolescence. "The Truth" grabbed me from the very beginning, with the preface by Dr. Barbara Holstein. I felt that I could relate very strongly to her words on the loss of childhood wisdom.

I'm not sure exactly how it occurred, but at some point between my 15th and 16th birthday, I lost my confidence in my own personal "truth". I began to walk through each day with more "adult" eyes, as my childhood voice was gradually silenced. All of my "impractical" childhood dreams were slowly stashed away somewhere and forgotten. I would walk through the same routine each day... wake up, go to school, come home, do some
homework, dwell on some childhood memories for a few moments, remember some childhood hopes and dreams, go to sleep, and repeat.
Being an artist, this meant that I had gradually stopped creating and sharing my visions. Rather, I began to suppress my creative impulses... in fear, I suppose, that they might have interfered with my routine.
I believed that if I simply continued to sleepwalk through each day in this manner, my dreams would return to me in the summertime.
By the time summer passed, I found that nothing had truly changed. It seemed that I was doomed to forever see the world through these new, older eyes... constantly searching for some mysterious, and very important "concept" that I had lost long ago.

When I dusted off my copy of "The Truth" to give it a second try, I had been desperately searching in my mind for my lost "voice" for nearly a year. On one night, my mother even walked into my bedroom to find me crouching on the floor, searching through piles of childhood photos, as if that would help me remember what it was that I'd lost.

Upon reading the preface of this book, I suddenly realized that there could indeed be an important truth for me to find in the pages that followed. I spent the rest of that day reading "The Truth", and thinking about my own personal "truth".

By the end of the book, I had truly grown close to this 10 year old girl from the past. Suddenly, the 50-some odd years that had previously separated me from her character seemed insignificant. The "truth", it seems, never really changes.
After finishing this book, I feel that I regained some of the lost childhood wisdom that I'd been trying so intently to regain.
I began to release my self from the many chains I'd unknowingly imposed on my self during the previous year, and found myself able to free my creative impulses from the cage in which I'd placed them. I eventually broke free of the seemingly endless artist block which had tormented
me for so long, as well as the writer's block which had, among other things, prevented me from writing this review earlier.

The journal-entry format in which "The Truth" is written is very effective, as readers feel that they have been given a special opportunity to read private and candid moments from this young girl's life. There are also plenty of humorous moments throughout the story---playing off of the little girl's innocence and naivety about certain matters.

I suppose that each reader will take his or her own "truth" from the story, no matter what their age or gender.
All in all, I would definitely recommend "The Truth" to others around my age who have recently lost a bit of their own childhood vision.

When I was growing up, I promised myself that I'd remember what it felt like to be a kid. So it was remarkable that reading the thoughts of a 10-year-old girl in "The Truth" sparked so many memories of my own boyhood.

The girl's diary gives us a humorous and heartbreaking reminder of a time of life that may be simpler but is not particularly easy. All within her own authentic voice, you can feel this girl emerging slowly from childhood into adolescence.

From beginning to end, her experiences make her stronger and smarter - more sure of herself but less sure of the world (though, perhaps, appropriately so.) And life's changes accrue: For example, she has her first falling-in-love experience, with all its joy and pain, but over time grows to trust that even if it goes unreturned, she'll still be all right.

In short, I enjoyed the book immensely and it made me remember.

The Truth, Barbara Becker Holstein's latest book, is the truth about the feelings and thoughts of a 10-year old girl. She could be any girl, growing up in the 1950's or even in the twenty-first century, as her wise insights and gut-felt reactions are universally recognizable. This little book, written as a child's diary, is an easy read, and contains much food for thought.

Becker Holstein has written about the passage from girlhood to adulthood before in her books, The Enchanted Self, A Positive Therapy and Recipes for Enchantment, The Secret is You. In The Truth, we observe the girl's growing understanding of herself and the world around her, and we are reminded that we were all once very wise as children. What made us forget and doubt ourselves?

Falling in love with the new boy in school, being last to be picked for teams in gym class, feeling the sting of a teacher's disapproval for asking the wrong questions are examples of some of the things that our girl discusses in The Truth. At home, our girl is always watching her parents' behavior, trying to make sense of it, not understanding why grownups hurt each other and their children by fighting and being cruel to one another. The girl confides, "I can be so miserable at home. Usually it is when my parents start fighting. But if I can get away from them, then I'm okay. When I stay around and listen, I feel like they are yelling at me." Why can't the girl's mother just be honest and tell her what's going on instead of just looking away sadly? Our smart girl vows to be different when she grows up. She will never look away when her kids ask her tough questions, and she won't get into silly fights with her husband.

Our girl describes the joyous feeling of being loved unconditionally by her extended family. "I'm most happy when no one is fighting and no one is telling me what's wrong with me, and that's why I love being with my grandparents." Her visits with them are wonderful because "They like everything about me, just the way I am." How precious and valuable such experiences are for children growing up!

Feeling that she is smart and "knows everything", our girl still puzzles about many of the mysteries of life. What is going to happen to her when she goes through that awful stage of being a teenager? Must she become silly and lose her brain and her self? She dreads the thought of it, though she knows it is a necessary passage to get to adulthood and freedom. Venturing out into the larger world is very satisfying for our pre-teen girl, who gets great enjoyment from being confident enough to take the bus downtown by herself to do a little shopping. Her mother has instructed her to sit close to the driver, which she does, and they are friends. Our girl feels sorry for another girl whose parents do not allow her to go anywhere by herself, and drive her places in their car. "I'm lucky my mom and dad let me do a lot on my own," she says.

Here is a dilemma of modern family life. How do you nurture that growing sense of freedom, courage and self-sufficiency that is so healthy for children without placing them in danger? Though we don't have buses with friendly, helpful drivers in our local neighborhoods and the intact nuclear family is a thing of the past, still, there must be ways that we can find to teach our children how to do things by themselves safely.

Though the setting of The Truth goes back several decades to a less complicated time, the feelings of our girl transcend time. We can all identify with her wanting to be loved and accepted, wanting to be pretty, yearning for family stability and peace, wanting to do something important and meaningful in life and at the same time, wanting to be happily married with children to take care of and love. "I'm not going to be trapped in the house with nothing to do but chores and laundry." Our girl promises herself she will get the right education and do whatever it takes to "really be somebody". She adds, "my kids can do the wash while I do more important things."

The Truth would be a terrific little book for a therapist to give to families to read at home as an adjunct to therapy. The book would be a delightful experience for moms and daughters to read together and talk about their reactions and thoughts. It could help the generations understand each other better and relate to each other by sharing thoughts about their common feelings and life experiences. Reading this book will make you laugh and cry, and that's the truth!

Lucinda M. Seares-Monica, Psy. D.
6/06/07



Psychologist, Private Practice
Freehold, New Jersey
Visiting Professor
Rutgers University, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology
New Brunswick, New Jersey

I admit it: I'm a cynic. I look at the world with my adult eyes and think I know Better. I'm old enough to know that I probably don't know "The Truth" about anything anymore.

In other words, I've forgotten the power of being ten, of being self-confident and sure, to think I can grow up to be as smart as Nancy Drew, to know that if the teacher calls on me I have the right question (if not the right answer). This book is a charming reminder of that confidence of knowing what it is to know Everything, that there's a safe place to confess fears about growing up, about being in love for the first time, about losing friends or fighting with them and forgiving them, about being fearful when parents fight, and being comforted by the relatives, friends, and coffee ice cream with jimmies.

This is a sweet, nostalgic recollection intended to help us remember what it was like to know everything, and to take comfort in thinking that perhaps we can recapture a bit of that, jaded though we may have become.

This is a quick read, good for discussion between mothers and daughters, or old friends who want to remember together what it was like to be facing a world of possibility...and maybe to think about what it might be like still to do so.

This is an excellent resource for Yoga teachers. Invaluable if you are a beginner teacher or if you are seasoned.

this is an excellent resource for instructors, students and practitioners. Very easy to follow with very nice, detailed descriptions of the poses.

This book is a great resource. There is so much information on each pose. It is a great tool for planning classes.

I ordered this for my mom who is a yoga teacher. I haven't given it to her yet, but i think she will like it. It was different then i thought. It's like a binder with 3 rings that hold in some kind of cards. i think it looks very well done and i received it quickly. my only complaint, though i think it might have been my fault, is that one of the rings doesn't close all the way, but like i said, i think that might be due to the fact that i dropped it twice. :) well though i have not looked through it, i would recommend it to any one, of course only if they are into yoga. i think the flash cards with the poses on them is a great way to quickly plan out a lesson for yourself or others.

Worth every penny.
2 sides of laminated page devoted to each of the most common positions, which include all the essential information you want with some extra thrown in-- very helpful directions for personal practice or for teaching(I've read every book on the market and I've picked up a number of very useful tips), benefits, chakras affected,alternative poses and modifications, warnings, etc.
You see everything at a glance.
I'm thrilled to have it as a teacher. It has not only increased my enjoyment of my personal practice, but has made me a better teacher.
Worth every penny and far more.
Only negative--binder is cheap. But I just replaced it. Pages themselves are indestructible.

This is a very good book that I read just for a break from my usual kind. It was about a teacher though, so that interested me. There's really a lot of things in this book--murder, romance, tension, suspense, justice, interracial relationships, teaching and great characters. I was very surprised how much I liked this book and recommended it to others. The main character stabbed her abusive husband to death, moved back home and got a teaching job. Had a romantic relationship with black guy who she grew up with as a brother when her parents died. School found out about her secret and suspended her for not telling them up front. I found myself pulling for her throughout the book and when she addressed racism in her class, it was a lesson I'll never forget myself. It actually gave me something to think about and helped me be more acceptant of interracial marriages.

Karen Arlettaz Zemek, author of "My Funny Dad, Harry"

Ok so the person from ARC bookclub or whatever. My guess is that you're book-retarded because quite honestly, how can the characters be shallow when many satisfied customers, myself included, found a depth in the character that really allowed us to experience what the character was experiencing. Plus, how could you figure out how they would handle situations and how the story would end if they are so allegedly shallow?
This book has all the aspects of every good novel compiled into one: comedy, romance, mystery, murder, mystery, etc.
It's a book that will really keep you on the edge of your seats with its constantly moving plot and laughing with the character's witty remarks.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who has been through a tragedy so they know how to stay strong, to anyone who has ever been in love, to anyone who has a crazy family, to any teacher, and to anyone who's just trying to find that place where they belong. This is an excellent book.

Meg Robbins is a widow with a big secret. She was married to an abusive man who wanted to kill her but she got him first. After his death, Meg drives back to her hometown and gets a job as a school teacher in the high school where she graduated. Her family never approved of her husband so they don't ask her many questions about how he died. The man who interviewed her for the job knew her for years doesn't ask either. Meg does not volunteer details.

Meg is an innovative teacher who loves her students and since she uses new technology to teach them, students begin asking to transfer to her classes. She becomes involved in an interracial relationship that some of the jealous teachers don't approve of and that's when the trouble starts. Her secret is unearthed and her life falls apart. Her job is in jeopardy and her lover loses interest in a murderess. Can she keep her job and get the love of her life back?

SHADES OF BROWN is an engaging story that keeps the reader's attention. While I do question the reality of life long friends refusing to speak to her without knowing the details of the murder, it provides plenty of tension.

Reviewed by alice Holman
of the RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Shades of Brown
Denise Becker 5 stars

Meg is a schoolteacher with a violent husband until she kills him during a fight to save her own life. Wanting to leave the past behind Meg moves back home to be with her adopted family the Harrington's.

Meg went to live with her best friend Tory in high school after her parents died. The Harrington's are black Meg is white. Meg was always treated like family in the Harrington household, the oldest son Michael always treated her like a sister but he was secretly in love with Meg for many years.

As Meg and Michael build a loving relationship her past comes back to haunt her. The faculty at school doesn't like Meg's way of teaching and want her out. Meg finds racial hate notes on her car. When they dig into her past they find out about her husband Bill and try to fire her. But Tory comes to her rescue.

However Michael never knew what happened and he pulls away from Meg. No one in the family knew about Meg's abuse. Michael and Tory's brother Luther loves Meg but he doesn't want his brother with a white woman.
This was an outstanding story of love and family in a society full of racism.
I enjoyed this story. I especially liked that Meg was portrayed as a strong woman with a big heart. In most interracial love stories it seems the white woman is always naive or she somehow causes the black man's down fall.
Shades of Brown didn't do that. This was a true account of interracial love today and all that comes along with it.

Reviewed by:
Dawn
Mahogany Book Club
Albany, N.Y.

This was a book club selection so I had to read it. I knew the outcome of the story before I was even half way through. The characters are completely shallow, and the whole color thing did not make sense to me being that Meg grew up in their black household! I could point out quite a few things but overall....I feel this would have made an o.k. Lifetime movie. But it was a waste of time to read. I would not reccomend this to anyone...period.

Taken from the time-honored Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition - 2006, All About Vegetarian Cooking is a lovely introduction to eating vegetarian and includes an informative intro about various kinds of vegetarians (lacto, ovo, macrobiotic, vegan), the advantages of eating organic veggies, nutrition for vegetarians, serving sizes (based on the 1995 guidelines), dietary essentials, and menu planning based around a variety of ethnic favorites such as Italian, Middle Eastern, Asian, Indian, and more.

The included recipes are fairly standard versions of those you'll find elsewhere. The bonus here is the numerous photographs of prep and informative footnotes sprinkled throughout. For example, the soups chapter starts with the basics of making homemade stock. There are numerous delicious whole-grain recipes calling for wheat/rye/spelt berries mixed into hot and cold salads, grilled veggie sandwiches with homemade focaccia and tapenade, falafel, hummus, and baba ganoush, curries and Moroccan stews, pilafs and risottos, and a chapter devoted to eggs (frittatas, souffles, timbales).

In all honesty, I own over a dozen vegetarian cookbooks, and there's a lot of overlap with other volumes such as Mediterranean Harvest: Vegetarian Recipes from the World's Healthiest Cuisine and The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen, but if you're new to vegetarian cuisine, this is a very serviceable introduction to some of the varied, tasty possibilities.

This cookbook is worth it for the Spanikopita recipe alone-make it with fresh spinach and freeze the leftovers. Reheat at 350 for 20-30 minutes or so and it tastes almost as good as fresh. My copy accidentally ended up in the Goodwill pile and I miss it so much I am buying it again. Definitely a keeper.

I purchased this book for a relative and they seem very happy with the book.

This is a very well-organized book, with simple, clear, specific directions on how to cook a variety of vegetarian dishes. It starts with the basics of cooking and goes on to describe how to make some tasty, good-looking dishes. Has lots of pictures.

We just got the book and finished browsing through it. My wife and I are vegetarians and cook a lot, and we can tell the recipes are good. We look forward to some delicious experimentation with the dishes described here.

Well worth the price.

I originally found the Joy of Cooking in the public library, took it home and even though it wasn't specifically vegetarian I found most part of the book helpful as it gives detailed descriptions on how to properly cook almost everything. When I saw the vegetables section available on it's own I had to purchase it.

I'm quite satisfied with this book, especially since it has photos. It's not as detailed as the original, but I still like the simplicity of the recipes and the writing style. Even though I've been vegetarian for some years now it's great to have a reference book that gives instructions on how to properly do things, such as roasting your own capsicum or making your own tomato sauce.

This book covers the specific influences of various European countries and the US in jewelry design during the Art Nouveau period. It covers the designers and their pieces with spectacular photographs of pieces that will knock your socks off. It is a fabulous reference book, but also one that you can curl up with on a rainy day and sip cocoa. Handy guides to identification - makers marks and signatures. Prepare to be wowed.

This book far exceeded my expectations for the price! The only minor criticism I have is that I wish ALL the photographs had been in color. A great deal......

A very good book about this period, no other one has covered the subject as this one.

I pondered over purchasing this book for probably two years. This was due mainly to the fact that there was no way to really view the content of this publication. Frankly, the authors offering of an inside look of their book was ridiculous. Show me some pictures!!! I really hate to purchase something that I can't see! Finally, I bit the bullet and purchased Art Nouveau Jewelry. I was stunned by the volume of beautiful color pictures. This book turned out to be just what I was looking for, basically a pictorial presentation of jewelry from that era. I search constantly for any reference material that I can find on this subject (Art Nouveau era jewelry) and this book is one of the best that I have found. So if you are a jewelry designer like myself and are always looking for inspiration, this is an excellent book for your collection.

i wanted to know more about art nouveau jewelry and this book really helped me for that purpose.
it has lots of pictures and info about whatever there is to know and see.
the only dissapointment was that majority of the pics are in black and white. You miss out on all the enameling work colors..
also i expected to see more from lalique.
overall though its a good book for starters.

An okay book, readable, but I was surprised it was a Main Selection of the Literary Guild. The problem I'm having might not be the book per se, but I really didn't like Karen Crist -- the main character. She is really bitchy. In other words, she isn't anybody I would care for as a character. In fact, one of the villians who is mentally retarded is much more likeable than Karen

My favorite character in the novel is the main villian who is a woman named Dee -- she is great because she is so evil and terrible. Not a person to want to run into in real life, but great to read about.

A former FBI agent named Becker is dragged into the case by Karen to find the person responsible for kidnapping and then murdering young boys. Both Karen and Becker do a horrible job of figuring out who the killer is. I guess I wasn't particularly drawn to either of them, which makes it harder to get into the novel.

This is the second Becker book I've read and it will be the last. The plot isn't so bad, and the writing is about par for the genre. If you like your hero? (Becker) whining and full of angst, then this series is for you. I might be able to tolerate Becker's problem for awhile, but to cough up any empathy for the lead female character, Karen Crist, is impossible. All I could think of by the end was -- why isn't Child Welfare coming to remove this child from this damaged, bitter, and abusive mother. By staying with her, poor Jack may not end up dead, but he stands a good chance of ending up being the same kind of "monster" (like Dee) the FBI will be looking for in a few years. Im glad I got it at the used book store and didn't pay top price for it.

I loved reading this book. I read the books "Into the Fire" and this one out of order. Now is this the faulty, complex and human hero that I have come to love. I don't read thrillers for goody-two shoes protagonists. We all have evil inside of us and whether we choose to act upon that evil thought or restrain ourselves is what makes us moral or immoral, IMO. Becker and Crist while full of fault are moral they acknowledge the dark side that resides in all of us. This is one good book!

WILTSE TELLS A STORY OF TWO KILLER, THAT BECKER MUST MAKE HIMSELF UNDERSTAND. ONE OF THE BEST BOOK I HAVE EVER READ.

John Becker is a man with a strange background. His childhood keeps him up nights, afraid of the dark. And yet, he has an uncanny ability to get into the heads of the killers he's asked to track.But this ability takes its tol on him. So when the FBI call him in, it's because they really need the help.

In this book it's to track down a killer they are calling Lamont Cranston, a kidnapper and killer of young boys. Only his profile doesn't seem to be working. Why? Because this is no typical killer. So while Becker struggles with his past and why he can't wrap his head around this case, another boy's life is in the balance.

This book, like Wiltse's others, has great pacing and keeps you wanting to urge the characters on. A wonderful ending as well.
Well worth the time to read, just be prepared to want more!

jon jordan

"Man is an animal...moving about on a planet shining in the sun. Whatever else he is, is built on this." So begins the opening pages of Becker's "Escape". "Existence, for all organismic life, is a constant struggle to feed--a struggle to incorporate whatever other organisms they can fit into their mouths and press down their gullets without choking. Seen in these stark terms, life on this planet is a gory spectacle...in which digestive tracks fitted with teeth at one end are tearing away at whatever flesh they can reach, and at the other end are piling up the fuming waste excrement as they move along..." Becker's "Denial of Death" dealt with the way man controls his basic anxiety by keeping it unconscious, "Escape from Evil", once again, tracks man from his organismic beginning to his emphatic end--detailing man's various ways he USES culture, ritual, power, inequality, money, etc as modes to achieving an expansiveness of meaning in the limited form of his physical body. Becker: "Man is an organism who KNOWS that he wants food and who KNOWS what will happen if he doesn't get it. This translates into a principle of prosperity...Once we have an animal who recognizes that he needs prosperity, we also have one who realizes that anything that works AGAINST continued prosperity is bad." Other insights: Becker's great insights into the primitive economy as religious because nature always gave freely to man, causing man to sacrifice food to remove his basic guilt...which may solve the dilema as to why native people were not content to just "exist" in paradise and be happy: Primitve life was a rich and playful dramatization of cosmic flirtation until Western man, who had long ago forgoten how to "play", came into the picture. Becker: "Society...is a dramatization of dependence and an exercise in mutal safety by the one animal in evolution who had to figure out a way of appeasing himself...We can conclude that primitives were more honest about these things---about guilt and debt---because they were more realistic about man's desperate situation vis-a-vis nature. Becker's insights unfold in front of you like a nasty animal you shine light on in your basement in the darkness. Read "Escape from Evil" along with "Denial of Death" and be prepared to either deny it all...or sit upright in the silent confines of your home and wonder what to do next...

Posthumous sequel to The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker's startingly insightful expose of what motivates human behavior. The one drawback, is that while Becker counsels humanity to chose the illusion that provides for the "grandest illusion," he himself does not attemmpt to describe it except as some vague combination of Marxism and pyschoanalysis. Nevertheless, these two books, The Denial of Death and Escape From Evil, should be required reading for every human on the planet.

This, the sequel to Becker's masterwork, "The Denial of Death," expands upon and completes that earlier project. Together they constitute Becker's own personal "immortality project": his quest for a Super-ordinate Science of Man.

Like "The Denial of Death," "Escape From Evil" (EFF) too is an analysis of how man has tried to grappled with his own confusing and often paradoxical existence, and in the process, it is additionally a story of how, as a byproduct, he also invented evil. And then it is also about how man's pursuit of his own cosmic theater of heroism required scapegoats to close the circle and complete his own immortality project, the most obvious fallout of which has been the evolution of evil itself.

The book thus, is not only about how the formula for evil in man's activities evolved, but also about how it can be resolved. And as is usual for Becker, EFF is intellectually robust and complete: we get the full story of man's attempt to come to grips with his world, from beginning to end. When the dust finally settles and the parts are pulled together in the last chapter, the reader is left with a panoramic view of what makes man tick.

As is typical for him, Becker begins with a series of questions that require a proper probing and interrogating of history and psychology in order to find, not just the correct, but the best synthesis. The over-arching question that animates this work is: What is it in man's psychological nature that propels him towards evil? Becker's answer this question by saying that man comes into the world free, but becomes un-free later, and does so willingly, giving his freedom over in exchange for safety and a feeling of redemption.

Leaning heavily on the Anthropologist A.C. Hocart, and using Rousseau and Nietzsche more or less as straw men, against which he bounces his ideas, the author answers his own question by updating a notion central to his previous work: There he argued that man was basically a "self-esteem maintenance machine." Substituted here is a larger more robust concept of "man in pursuit of prosperity." It is used to update, the earlier concept. Thus, in the final analysis, it is "the pursuit of prosperity" rather than "self-esteem maintenance" that serves to answer the questions that Becker poses, and that does most of the heavy lifting for this project. It does so by expanding and greatly refining the former concept, and indeed it is this refinement that is most efficacious in demonstrating more clearly how the process of evil actually comes about.

Greatly summarized, Becker's story goes something like this: Man is inherently a "religious being" due in large measure to the fact that he is born into a hostile world naked, with only his mind and his fears with which to negotiate his survival. Ultimately it is his fears (and the guilt that they engender and the associated need for redemption) that are at the base of "socialized man." For the most part, it is the colonization of fear, guilt and the need for redemption that organizes society and culture.

The earth, which provides man with most of his sustenance, still remains a little understood cosmic force, a gift from the gods, as it were, that man imagines must be returned in kind if the life cycle, the cosmic life force and man's own prosperity and ultimately, which his very life depends on, is to continue. Thus the cosmic force is the primary source of all power in the world. And since time immemorial, man has seen as one of his primary tasks of survival: that of accommodating, or at the very least not antagonizing or offending, this invisible source of power and cosmic force.

However, whether invisible or not, returning the "offerings," became a rather complex psychological task for man. It required the bureaucratization and management on earth of an invisible or superior cosmic force. The most efficacious way of doing this was through representatives who could act openly and visibly as indirect agents of the gods. And here Becker of course means the Shamans, the Priests, the Popes, the Chiefs, the CEOs, the Presidents and Prime Ministers, and the Magicians. With primitive man (and of course in a much more sublimated sense) even with modern man, a system and process of rituals including an altar and rules, ceremonies, customs and traditions for invoking the pleasure of the gods, (and avoiding their approbations) was required in order to properly make sacrifices to them; sacrifices that would of course ensure continued prosperity.

The whole process of ritualization still amounts to a technology of social psychology; one that is co-terminus with all cultures that attempt in their own way to ensure that the sustained gifts of the cosmic force continues the cycle of life and prosperity. Ritualization as a technic of religion and of society, becomes a new sacred modality for vicariously extending the life giving forces, and thus of taming and bringing the mysterious power of the cosmos down to earth; and of course, most importantly, of making it available to ensure the continued success of man's earthly "prosperity projects."

It is axiomatic in human nature that anything that represents the gods, also represent an indirect contact with the power of the cosmic forces that the gods bestow. Such central source of power must at all times be respected. Ultimately, it is the indirect delegation of, and amplification of this power downward to the lowest levels, coupled with the personal tendencies already inherent in man's psychological makeup (to give over his power and freedom to a leader with special powers attached to the cosmic force) that is responsible for providing the motive force for the machinery of evil: Men asked to be mystified, they wanted and needed kings and leaders, and that is the great weakness in man's nature: Ultimately man is scared of operating alone within the confines of his own freedom.

Once the refracted and reflected power of the gods is delegated, bureaucratized, socialized, and eventually colonized, taken together with man's inherent tendencies towards self-subjugation, the turning of the gears towards evil has already been set fully into motion. It is but a short hop, skip and jump through history before god's designated representative's quest for personal power has irretrievably corrupted man's otherwise pristine and free nature. Without being aware of it, man has slid into an unholy "freedom stripping" quid pro quo: trading in his freedom for the comfort and the tyranny of a community invariably based on shared fears and insecurities, shared guilt and shared hopes of redemption -- all orchestrated and ruled by powerful representatives with mandates from their gods. As Becker puts it on page 51 "Men fashion un-freedom as a bribe for self-perpetuation."

In rapid evolutionary succession, personal property acquisition, inequality, greed and all other known forms of social corruption follow: First in the name of the sacred and the divine, and then in the name of the less divine: that is, in the name of ideology and eventually in the name of the state. Once it has evolved to this last stage, of the state, man has irretrievably lost all control of the corrupting machinery. From there on, his descent into evil is all but automatic. Oppressive power, corruption and inequality have always taken place in the service of the legitimate and all too often, in the service of the religious order. As Hegel has put it: Men cause evil out of good intentions not out of wicked ones."

So what is the correct route to Escape From Evil?

Becker is not so arrogant as to proffer such advice because he believes it fits into the same existential trap of other failed Enlightenment projects: It too becomes just more dead end advice from another failed hero system: psychology. But he leaves us with this important thought, put forth in part by Elie Wiesel that "Man is not human." He is just a frightened creature trying to secure a victory over his limitations, but a creature that is continually failing at this task.

Five Stars.

This is an interesting book that reviews the findings of some psychologists in recent years. It does develop Freud analysis and the Neo Freud pschologists modifications into a new explanation of evil and death denial.
It sometimes uses concepts too broadly without adequate definitions. If you were read this book it would be wise to read Freud and Jung as a starting point.
It is fairly complex and covers too wide an area. However it a usual contribution to the modern social science explanations of man's behaviour.

Escapre from Evil may not be as rigorous as Denial of Death (perhaps fittingly since it was published before Becker finished it), but it is more interesting and engaging. Becker's thesis sounds a bit farfetched at first and, indeed, what he offers in the end may be more of a possible interpretation than a necessary one. However, his observations are wide-ranging and rest on solid ground.

Perhaps I do not want to say to much and spoil it for any potential readers. Suffice it to say that this work is incredible and is possibly my favorite book. I tore through it and will almost certainly read it again. It is a shame that Becker left this world so early, as he had a brilliant mind and would doubtlessly have produced more profound works.

I approach the subject from a mathematical direction having been greatly interested in the fact that historically speaking, string theory has been evolving backwards and still searching for its appropriate geometry. While only a few of the prominant names in the area have undertaken the task of writing a comprehensive manuscript on string theory, the past couple of decades has seen the publication of texts by Polchinski, Kaku, Zwiebach, and several others, all with their own merits, scope, and style of presentation. The present title as far as I know is the first on the topic chiefly written by female physicists (who are inevitably better at explaining things!) and eventhough as Lee Carlson mentions in his review here, there is room for improvements in a few places, Becker & Schwarz is perhaps the best current option for reference and for teaching a first-year graduate course. As the writers have noted in the Preface, the book assumes a background in quantum field theory, general relativity, and also familiarity with the mathematical concepts and constructs in group theory, differential geometry, and topology. The discussion starts out with the basics on perturbative string theory, moving into conformal field theory, supersymmetry, dualities, and finally to the more modern developments such as D-branes and M-theory. My favorite chapters are the ones on String Geometry (chapter 9) and Flux Compactifications (chapter 10), the latter being one of the more recent developments in the area not discussed in the earlier books. In a departure from the 1980's and 1990's perspective, string theory has become progressively more accessible to nonspecialists (such as engineers), therefore the 120-or-so worked-out problems and the other 200 homework exercises which are included provide a good setting for those not taking an official course, to try their hand on solving various problems for better understanding the subject. In summary, Becker & Schwarz (and its possible future editions) is destined to be one of the main treatises of string theory in the coming years.

I have read "Theory of Everything" and understood the technical elements of physics by Brian Greene. Becker2,Schwarz are math professors first. Reader beware. You must have a desire for string knowledge or math interests. Yes the book is great. Beware amatures. I have also resad "String Theory" by Joseph Polchinski. I understood more material but it is almost 10 years old. Big difference. I recommend reading such a up-dateded version of brane data. So much more too.

This is a nice book to have if you're trying to learn string theory. The presentation is rather straightforward. What's really nice is each chapter has several solved examples. But best of all the writing is clear and its relatively (no pun intended) easy to follow the book to the end. In my opinion, this book is accessible to anyone with a basic physics (or even math) undergraduate education. Zweibach is a great book for sure, but by design it cuts corners in an attempt to make the subject accessible to undergraduates. I don't think thats really necessary (except maybe avoiding path integrals). What I like about this book is it does not cut corners. Topics that are avoided in Zweibach are definitely discussed in here.

String theory has been criticized since it was first invented but not to the degree that it has now, this criticism mostly focusing on its failure to connect with observation. The criticism has increased dramatically in recent years however, and some of this has been too vituperative to be useful to those curious about string theory as a viable physical theory. But criticism, however harsh, can be healthy, since it motivates the proponents of a theory to more carefully elucidate its foundations and content. This is usually not the case when a theory is popular, as researchers are in a competitive spirit and are hesitant to share the knowledge to possible competitors. At this stage in the game however, string theorists it seems are now on the defensive, and have thus taken the time to discuss in-depth what this reviewer still believes is the most complex and beautiful theory ever constructed in mathematical physics. String theory still has a long way to go before it gains status as being a physical theory, but hopefully by the end of the next few decades one will see the appearance of charts, graphs, and numerical calculations in books on string theory, much like one finds in the most successful of all physical theories to date: relativistic quantum field theory.
Some highlights in the book that are particularly insightful include:
1. The observation that Dirichlet boundary conditions (for the open string) break Poincare invariance, but that this leads to the introduction of Dp-branes as positions of the endpoints of the open string. Poincare invariance is recovered as long as Dp-brane is space filling, i.e. has a dimension one less than the background spacetime.
2. The view that the BRST quantization of the path integral is really a conformal field theory. This is interesting in that BRST analysis is typically thought of as a procedure for quantizing constrained systems (gauge theories being predominant examples).
3. The `Myers effect'. Sometimes referred to as the `D-brane dielectric effect', it is part of an attempt to understand the physics of non-Abelian D-branes for strong fields. One of the challenges in this understanding involves the validity of the Dirac-Born-Infeld action in these kinds of circumstances, which as the authors remark is designed for situations where the background fields and world-volume gauge fields do not vary appreciably over the distances on the order of the string scale.
4. The origin of the (classical) Virasoro algebra as the freedom of choice of gauge in the reparametrization symmetry. And along these same lines, the quantization of the Virasoro algebra is defined to the normal ordering of the Virasoro generators, and their commutators give an expression consisting of the ordinary classical term plus a "quantum" correction, the famous central extension. Thus the quantum Virasoro algebra can be viewed as a "quantum deformation" of the classical Virasoro algebra, with the central parameter as being the deformation parameter. This philosophy of deformation has found generalization in what are now called `quantum groups' (even though strictly speaking they are much more complicated objects than ordinary groups).
5. The connection of the dilaton to the Euler characteristic.
6. The role of the GSO projection in insuring consistency in the state spectrum.
7. The use of (vector bundle) K-theory to classify D-brane charges. This use arises when it is realized that the conserved R-R charges cannot be identified with cohomology classes of gauge field configurations. Instead, the D-branes are classified by K-theory classes.
8. The discussion on `primitive cohomology' and its relation to de Rham cohomology and Hodge theory.
9. The role of the Born-Infeld structure in ensuring Lorentz invariance of the T-dual description. The Born-Infeld action was once viewed as a mere historical curiosity, namely as a nonlinear generalization of the Maxwell theory, with no experimental backing. That it finds such a natural place in string theory is very interesting (but still of course lacking in experimental support).
10. The derivation of a lower bound for Newton's constant from heterotic M-theory, which is close to the observed value.
11. The argument, beautifully elucidated in this book, that type IIA supergravity may be obtained from 11-dimensional supergravity by dimensional reduction.
12. The discussion on warped space-times and the gauge hierarchy. The authors cleverly motivate this subject by asking why Newtonian gravity follows an inverse-square law rather than an inverse-cube law.
13. An entire chapter is devoted to "stringy" geometry, which is a fascinating subject given that it touches so many areas of modern mathematics.
14. The discussion of the `hidden sector' and its conjectured relation to dark matter and supersymmetry breaking.
15. The author's treatment of the AdS/CFT conjecture is superb and is by far the most interesting part of the book. The dualities shown to exists between gauge theory and string theory are a possible route to a full understanding of nonperturbative quantum chromodynamics, which to this date has defied resolution.

Some major omissions or discussions that need more elaboration include:
1. The difficulties that are actually involved in quantizing the Nambu-Goto action. The authors remark that this is due to the presence of the square root, but it would have been interesting if they would have indicated just where the trouble rises explicitly when a quantization procedure is attempted with the Nambu-Goto action. In ordinary quantum field theory, the presence of the square root is interpreted as a "nonlocal" problem, but even there this issue is not usually dealt with in a manner that is very transparent.
2. A more detailed treatment of string field theory for those readers who want to compare it to what is done in second quantization in ordinary quantum field theory.
3. The role of the Beltrami differentials in the attaining of a measure for moduli space that is invariant under reparametrizations of the moduli space.
4. No in-depth discussion of characteristic classes over and above the algebra involved in their manipulation (i.e. the wedge products). An understanding of characteristic classes is crucial to understanding superstring and brane theory, but the pages of this book mislead the unsuspecting reader that there is nothing to characteristic classes except algebraic manipulation of the differential forms. But characteristic classes have a deep geometrical meaning, and obtaining insight into this meaning has been proven to be difficult for students of string theory. This book does not provide any of this insight, nor do any of the other books currently in print on string theory.
5. Is supersymmetry absolutely necessary for the incorporation of fermions into string theory? The authors seem to argue that it is, but an explicit proof is lacking.
6. The proof that `threshold bound states' are stable is omitted, disappointing the more mathematically sophisticated reader. As the authors remark, the proof involves a special type of index theory involving non-Fredholm operators, and where one must deal with a continuous spectrum. The usual index theory breaks down since one is only dealing with elliptic operators, and contributions to the index from bosons and fermions do not necessarily have to be integers.
7. The authors should have included more discussion on mirror symmetry, beautiful subject that it is.
8. Dp-branes are asserted to be useful in incorporating non-Abelian gauge symmetries in string theory, in that they appear "naturally" as confined to world volumes of multiply-coincident Dp-branes. But is this the best way to introduce these symmetries? Is there a method, other than this one and `compactification', that is just as "natural" and does not have the contrived element that the introduction of Dp-branes sometimes has?
9. The authors need to elaborate in more detail on the definition of "stable" and "unstable" D-brane.
10. The omitting of the proof that string theories are ultraviolet finite theories of quantum gravity. This is by far the most serious omission in the book. This reviewer does not know of a reference that proves this assertion, and many in the physics community have pointed to this omission as being a sign that the string theory research community has been misled by false assertions of proof.

I think this is a great book that provides not only a great introduction to string theory (there is no assumed prior knowledge of string theory), but also provides coverage of many more advanced topics as well. I think it's likely that the vast majority of students specializing in string theory will want to read it at some point in their studies.

The coverage of topics in the first few chapters is in some ways fairly standard. The first two chapters consists of a high level overview of string theory, bosonic string, the Nambu-Goto action the Polyakov action, the Virasoro algebra, the critical dimension, light code gauge and the spectra of open/closed strings. After this there is a chapter on conformal field theory, naturally emphasizing the parts relevant to string theory (including a bit of string field theory). This is followed by discussions of worldsheet supersymmetry, spacetime supersymmetry, anomalies, T-duality and heterotic strings. The writing is very clear and considering the nature of the material, fairly straight forward. There are two things that I considered exceptional strengths. One is that the discussions incorporate D-branes, M-theory and the (unexpected) symmetries of string theory early on. The other is that there are numerous worked examples, as there are throughout the book.

At a very high level the rest of the book contains more extensive discussions of M-theory, compactification (including a substantial amount besides the standard approach of the compact dimensions being a Calabi-Yau space), mirror symmetry, S-duality, possible cosmological consequences of string theory, black holes and other solutions with horizons, matrix theory, AdS/CFT correspondence (a proposed equivalence between closed string solutions on the product of a sphere and anti-deSitter space and Yang-Mills theories) and the holographic principle (or as some would say conjecture).

The things I appreciated the most about this material was that is was a very interesting mix of topics. The discussion of black holes and cosmology was fairly extensive (for cosmology it was the most extensive I've seen in a text book). As was the coverage of the AdS/CFT correspondence. There were also some topics that I don't recall seeing in other string theory books, such as warped geometries in compactification and S-branes (these are like D-branes but they satisfy Dirichlet boundary conditions in timelike directions).

Needless to say it's a fairly advanced book. There is some coverage of things like complex spaces, topology, general relativity and cosmology. However this material is more along the lines of a review, not something intended to teach from first principles (some of the other string theory books cover this kind material in more detail).

All-in-all I believe this book not only provides a great introduction, it also provides an excellent treatment of some of the more advanced topics in string theory.

I have read the excerpts provided in "Search Inside The Book" and plan to order the book. What I read so far certainly rings true with my experience as a daughter who at age 10 lost her mother to anorexia when she was 52 years old. Most of the books on anorexia seem to focus on the one with the disease. The impact on the family is devastating. My father, sibling and I suffered greatly also. Her disease became the focus of our lives. A therapist once pointed out to me how much control my mother had over our family. This was a new idea to me as I had always perceived her as being weak. My mother was hospitalized several times -- the longest being about 2 years. My sibling and I had to be placed in a group home during that time as relatives who had helped out in the past were no longer able to do so. It is true that no amount of reasoning, begging, or angry threats will change the anorexics behavior. In fact, it may aggravate it. The family is left wondering what else to do. I know that today there is a much better understanding of this condition than back in the fifties and I believe new more effective treatment options exist. The family needs help every bit as much as the person with anorexia. Groups like Al-Anon or other recovery groups may be helpful. I've found a Christian recovery group called Celebrate Recovery (based on 12-steps) to be helpful for me. Ultimately, one has to let go of the other person. This is not to say that you sever ties with them or stop loving and caring or that you even stop seeking help (when person is open to it). It just means that you let go of the outcome and recognize your inability to control the other person. The survivor needs to forgive and let go of the anger and focus on their own life and recovery. By the grace of God, I've never suffered from anorexia or any other eating disorder, but have suffered but am well on the way to recovery from toxic effects.

Daniel Becker makes an invaluable contribution to the literature regarding families impacted by Anorexia. His is a very readable story that will surely help others tell about their experiences without judgement or blame. This Mean Disease should be on every psychotherapists bookshelf. Neither pathologizing the patient nor the family, Mr. Becker tells the story of a family's ordeal and best efforts to heal.

This book is first and foremost a wonderfully written memoir. In the current field, filled with recollections of growing up in alcoholic, schizophrenic and other dysfunctional families, Daniel Becker's book stands out as a straight-forward story about growing up with an anorexic mother and it's effects on his brothers, his father and himself. Becker's mother was diagnosed with adult anorexia at a time when very few had heard of the word much less knew how to spell it. The author not only provides the reader with a great deal of information about the disease but writes about its consequences upon the entire family dynamic. Above all, this is an honest attempt by Becker to make sense of his own childhood as well as This Mean Disease's effect on his adult life.

This is a heartwrenching tale of a young boy whose mother, suffering from a then-rare disease called anorexia, spent literally years institutionalized with her illness. As a result, the author, Daniel, never formed the appropriate bonds with her and other members of his family. The focus was always on his mother and her illness, which no one understood. While I found Daniel's perspective interesting and touching, I was left wanting to get into the Mother's mind, into the heart of her anorexia to understand more about this baffling disease. I also suffer from this "mean disease," and I have a son who is young. I will carefully try to avoid making the same mistakes Daniel's mother made; luckily, great strides have been made both in psychiatry and in eating disorder treatment since Daniel's mother was in "treatment". While this is a good read for anyone who has a loved one suffering from anorexia, it is frustratingly sparse in any explanations for the disease itself, focusing instead on the devastating effects on the immediate family. If you are an ED sufferer, read with caution...this tale is very guilt-inducing.

This memoir of author Daniel Becker's mother, a survivor of anorexia nervosa, recounts the starvation disease's impact not just on his mother, but on his entire family. Throughout his childhood his mother was obsessed with food and the family secret of his mother's disease which influenced the entirely family. From Jewish and family rituals to his mother's feelings about her anorexia, THIS MEAN DISEASE offers a poignant chronicle by another family member other than the usual sufferer - and brings to life many family issues surrounding an anorexic family member.

The book has some good information but it assumes you have read the other companion books and can be hard to understand sometimes.

Workforce Scorecard is an awesome addition to the Strategy collection focussed on HR.

The authors clearly drive home the message that one of the key's to Business success is the focus on HR Strategy and Execution of the same.

I have a rather intuïtive, conceptual way of thinking , working and talking. This book helped me to translate my ideas and feelings about wrong and right into a very clear approuch. It will surely help me doing my job as a consultant ! In our bussiness we're already much into BSC en HR-SC. This WF-SC was the missing link for me, when I am helping organisations and leaders to be succesfull in the execution of their strategy.

The only thing that frighten me was the "A"-player, "C"-player logic. I meet to much people that do not feel responsable for their own carreer (employability) ... what must we (organisations, society, coaches ...) do to help these people to become "A"-players again. If they don't feel the need ... no one can help them ! And what if one day, I become a "C"-player ?

Philippe BAILLEUR
HR-Consultant
SD WORX - BELGIUM

Two Professors of Human Resource Management at Rutgers University and the Chairman of the Department of Organization and Human Resources of SUNY-Buffalo combine their knowledge in The Workforce Scorecard: Managing Human Capital To Execute Strategy, a guide written especially for business leaders and CEOs looking for a means to accurately assess their human resources and capital. Chapters address how to build an evenhanded and objective "workforce scorecard", the role of line managers, workforce metrics, ideal communication and learning programs for the workforce scorecard, how to focus on the goal of a more productive workplace through expert selection and management of human capital, and much more. A slightly general but solidly written treatise that covers both academic principle and the needs of practical reality.

It is more important now than ever before to measure human performance accurately and consistently, especially given the rapidly increasing use of outsourcing which requires effective supervision of those to whom important tasks are entrusted. Although this book was written primarily for HR executives, I think it can also be of substantial interest and value to other senior-level executives as they are challenged to determine organizational priorities and then to formulate strategies by which to achieve specific objectives. I agree with countless others that is it difficult (if not impossible) to manage what cannot be measured. I am also convinced that appropriate metrics must be selected, and, that primary importance must be placed on measurement of those initiatives on which success (however defined) depends. The authors of this book provide a cohesive, comprehensive, and cost-effective program by which workforce success can be monitored and measured.

According to Huselid, Becker, and Beatty, their analysis "begins by being clear about what we need to know. If we don't know what we need to know, we will never know it. Too often we measure what is easy rather than what is right....Second, knowing a lot about the wrong thing not only is unhelpful, but can be misleading. The Workforce Scorecard points out that not all customers, strategies, or products are equal, [nor are all employees or workforces]...The harsh reality of managing people is that differentiation must occur, with some employees more equal than others." I agree while presuming to add that those who add the greatest value to the given customers are those who add the greatest value to the given employer. This is what the authors have in mind when noting the difference between equity and equality: "Equity means that those who give more will get more; equality means that all will be treated equally."

In this context, I am reminded of Carla O'Dell's discussion of many of these same issues in If Only We Knew What We Know in which she asserts that there are in almost all organizations what she calls "beds of knowledge" which are "hidden resources of intelligence that exist in almost every organization, relatively untapped and unmined." She recommends a number of strategies to "tap into "this hidden asset, capturing it, organizing it, transferring it, and using it to create customer value, operational excellence, and product innovation -- all the while increasing profits and effectiveness." This is precisely what Huselid, Becker, and Beatty have in mind when explaining the importance of identifying and then obtaining the information needed for managing human capital effectively to execute strategy.

I wish it were possible to reproduce within this brief commentary Figure 1.1 (on page 4) and Figure 1.2 (on page 7) which brilliantly illustrate the essential components of "Managing Human Strategy" and "Workforce Success: The Impact of Workforce Strategy on Business Strategy Execution." In fact, all of the Figures which supplement the narrative facilitate and expedite frequent review of the authors' key points after the book has been read.

With rigor and eloquence, Huselid, Becker, and Beatty examine