Berry Books

ok, as of this morning i've now read all of steve berry's books, i've enjoyed them all! this one was really good, i liked the plot, the history, the action scenes, well, everything!
highly recommemded!

I have read several of Steve Berry's books and this one is a pretty good page turner. It's a well crafted idea inspired from old Russian legends and conspiracy theories. The characters are believeable but I have to say that I thought Miles Lord just didn't get it. He didn't seem to notice the obvious (when it came to his nemesis) although everyone around him did.

One thing that Berry does is replay the same scenes using different vantage points. Maybe it is used more frquently than I think but his are the only books I've read that do that. It's an effective technique.

Overall the book is a fairly enjoyable ride. A new copy is a good buy but even a better buy would be some of these used copies selling for some spare change.

For Steve Berry, the search is the thing. This could not be more true for the main characters are poorly developed. The hero Miles Lord is black because he has to be (read the book) and he is totally unbelievable as is his boss - and villain - Taylor Hayes. Lord is pursued by a trio of bad guys who makes the three stooges seem like Elliot Ness. If these guys had failed, most authors would have had their bosses kill them off after the first miss rather than transport them halfway around the world to fail for the umpteenth time. What should be dramatic becomes truly funny. The search for the Romanov's shows Berry's lack of skill at this point in is career.

Yes, it was a Dan Brown ripoff anyway. The characters were totally to be forgotten, aside perhaps from the actual Romanovs. It was pulp fiction which is all I can afford to purchase on the newstand, but I spent several sessions reading it.
I love history and, after all, it's "true" that there were two missing bodies. Just imagine if a couple of the tsar's children had somehow survived. So, at least the idea was a bit compelling.
But, no. Now DNA evidence has 100 per cent id'ed the last two bodies that had been missing.
All the Romanov children died, that night, along with their parents. Negating completely the entire premise of this book.
Well, it still had some interesting historical elements in it.
There ARE still Romanov prince's in the world, one of the direct line of Russina tsars prior to Nicolas born in the US in 1985. So, it is not impossible to imagine a new line of Russian nobility. Nobles keep great records of thier geneaology.
But, none of Nicholas and Alex's kids survived that awful night.

OK, I can go along with the notion of Russians wanting to see the monarchy restored -- I know more than a few who feel that way. The notion of that being accomplished by a commission is something of a stretch, but hey, it's fiction -- no problem. The mafiya involvement in every aspect of Russian life -- that isn't even fiction. But, let's see, a failed Russian economy, the survival of *both* Anastasia and Alexei, the rehabilitation of Felix Yussoupov, and oh yes, let's not forget "Bloody Nicholas"...well... In an interview printed at the back of the paperback version, Steve Berry admits he first wrote this thing in 1997. Hint, Steve: If your publisher asks for your Next Great American, and you just happen to have one stashed in the drawer that was rejected by 17 major publishers (for reasons only too apparent) -- AT LEAST UPDATE THE THING. Sticking Putin's name next to Yeltsin's doesn't count as updating. There's only so much that the Fiction tag will excuse. (Oh, and your ignorance of the Russian Soul, not to mention Russian history, is too painful to be borne.)

"The Amber Room' starts very well - its premises are to be found in the history of the end of WW2 and they set the stage for a modern day thriller that takes us over the whole Europe in search of a lost art treasure looted by the Nazis. Rival art bounty chasers fight one another in a lethal competition that engulfs also a broken couple of American lawyers. It is when we get to these 'positive' characters that the flaws of Berry's writing start to show up, or maybe it's his lack of experience. There are also some historical research flaws. While the Nazi period is well reasearched and known by the author the more recent Eastern European history seems to be less familiar to Berry - a big industrialist and weapons manufacturer could not have kept his business during Communist rule as one of the vilains of the story does, he would have simply put to jail and killed or let die there as an enemy capitalist while his property and business would have been confiscated.

By the end of the book the logic of the story is also fading, the characters behave too much in an expected manner, and the ending lacks credibility. I am a fan of the historical thriller genre, and the subjects of Steve Berry's books seemed all appealing to me - so I bought his first four books - but now after reading this first I think that I should have been more cautious. Or maybe, the flaws of this book are caused mainly by his lack of experience at debut. OK, I will try the next one!

by steve berry! actually, his first published book!
so far i've read all of his books except the romanov prophecy, which i'll start soon,
anyway, i really enjoyed the amber roon! i could not put it down!
i read it in 4 days, which is about average for me, and i enjoyed the story very much! i was entertained, and learned something to boot!
highly recommended!

I picked up this book because of the endorsement by Dan Brown, but after reading it, I can honestly say that I will never buy another book by this writer. He has no respect for women and I was very disturbed by his depictions of female characters. The men were constantly calling them b***** and the sex scenes were disturbing. The women in power were treated with utter disrespect by the male characters in the book and they were poorly written. It is no surpise that the main female character is raped in the end. In addition, the plot was very weak and not well thought out. I could not help but think that this writer's work is amateurish at best and that he has major problems with women. While the historical information was interesting (and that made my time spent reading this book worthwhile), I will never read another book by Steve Berry. There are too many other good books on the market to waste your time with his writing.

Anyone who has seen the reconstituted Amber Room in the Catherine Palace outside St. Petersburg will be intrigued by this mystery which ties it in a convoluted plot populated with a cast of villains of an international stripe and an American judge and her husband. Backed by a fair rendering of the history of the original Amber Room and its removal by the Nazi in the battle of Leningrad, the stereotyped characters are the meanest of the mean, the truest of true Americans and a North Carolina bumpkin. The ending, garnished with sex, is awkward but entertaining as one drifts off to slumberland.

During WWII, Hitler's propaganda machine is hard at work to create a world museum in which to showcase Nazi philosophy. Beyond the masterpieces like paintings and statues, lies a lesser known piece of art work--the Amber Room--first hatched in Germany, but eventually realized in Russia. Considered as an eighth wonder of the world, the rarity and the jewel grade, as well as the master craftsmanship of molding individual amber pieces into intricate shapes and designs, is beyond valuable. It is the stuff that fantasies are built upon, and the greed of those who will pay whatever price to have it. From governments who want the prestige and history, to private collectors who just want a piece of history that's solely their own, to regular folk who just want to find why it's so important, all these come together to seek something that maybe as illusive as the mystery of the Room itself.

Therein lies several perspectives.
--Karol Borya (Karl Bates): 1945, Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Austria. Under the orders of Hitler's second in command, Goring, Karol is unwittingly thrust into the game of finder's keepers, a haunt that is eventually inherited by his daughter when he dies unexpectedly in his Atlanta home, three decades later.
--Rachel Cutler nee Bates (Borya): As a superior court Judge in Atlanta, her reputation as a cold but effective enforcer of the law is legendary. Just ask her stolid ex-husband, a too-easy going probate lawyer, who not only shares joint custody of their two children and more or less has remained a constant in Rachel's life, but pathetically pines after her, who continually eats him for lunch.
--Christin Knoll: A mid-forties German, is an Acquisitor, who's boss is Franz Fillner, a media mogul along with his daughter Monika, are part of a secret organization that steals stolen artwork from around the world. His deep interest clashes deeply with another member, Ernst Loring, initiating a small battle between their underlings.
--Suzanne Danzer: the successor to her father's role as Acquisitor, also belongs to Ernst Loring, a wealthy Eastern European small-arms manufacturer, whose ties with the Amber Room goes much deeper than any expected. As well as his penchant to remove anything and anyone near his path.
--Wayland McKoy: a treasure hunter with substantial backing, is digging into the Harz Mountains for WWII loot that will hopefully make him rich. But beneath the grubby grime of greed, lies more than what he appears and turns out to be more friend than foe, just in time.

The history of the Amber Room--an actual reality--was fascinating and well done, with a note at the end, telling specifically what was real, what wasn't. The revealing of its history and the obsessiveness that inspired so many people from real historical figures like Hitler to Goring, to the fictional ones like Borya and McKoy, gave a vital and the only thrilling element to this otherwise, boring and lifeless book.

All but Karol Borya and Wayland McKoy lacked any depth or any emotional tugging, even though Berry tried. Not even all the globe-trotting and bang 'em up were interesting. And he spent an awful good deal of time trying to show he knew his history. Mainly, he just doesn't spend enough time on the psychological element of the characters so it comes off rather awkward and lacking any sparks. And it was rather flat, a bit cliche at times and stiff. Berry follows extremely predictable stereotypes, which tended to distract rather than enhance. The opposites attract relationship between Rachel and Paul is not only uneventful but at times, contradictory and annoying. There were several times when the characters, with all their smarts, didn't do the obvious right thing or were easily led astray and believed anything that was said. In the end, you won't feel for any of these characters, they're just 2-D animations.

The meticulousness and close examination of making sure everything fit just perfectly bled any creativity in the structure and characterizations that might have been there. Does this make the book bad? No, not at all and I did enjoy the story. But it was just...very ordinary, very standard. The mystery of the organization and the people's involvement itself were not all that spectacular, and didn't live up to the hype at all. The unveiling of the less known Amber Room itself was the only element with any emotion and held my attention. And that alone, was worth a one-time read. Everything else...very forgettable.

The book gave me a insight into the actual politiccal workings of the Catholic church. The extent of the cover-ups by bishops and cardinals of priest that abused minors was a crime. It should never have happened if the bishops and cardinals had done their job and turned the violating priest over to civil authorties.
This book should be required reading for all those studying to be priest, brothers and nuns. They should understand that if charged with violation of a minor that they could be subject to civil law.

I have read the book and I have the feeling that it is a well orquestrated plan to destroy a very positive force in the Church. Just like when the Jesuits came out many centuries ago. Something tells me that in a couple of decades many of these people will be eating their words and we will see the Catholic Church name this priest Maciel as a true saint. Maybe I'm wrong but there are many similiar cases in the history of the Church. Time will tell.

by FATHER OWEN KEARNS, LC

The October 2001 edition of Deal Hudson's Crisis magazine features a cover story on "The Price of Priestly Pederasty." The article focuses mostly on the financial impact of lawsuits and settlements, but it notes that good priests "have been tarnished by the unearthing of a sexual underworld among men of the cloth."

And how.

To borrow a term from the war on terrorism, there is untold "collateral damage" in the priesthood because of these violations of sacred trust.

It is a cross all Catholics bear - be they victims of the abuse, Catholics in the pew who wonder how in God's name such a thing could ever happen, bishops who must deal with the lawsuits and sometimes unfair accusations of cover-up, or innocent priests whose reputations are smeared by the sins of their brothers.

So what happens when a priest - a very good priest - is falsely accused of sexual misconduct? He is often presumed guilty until proven innocent. Even clear proof of innocence is not enough for some. Let me tell you about a case very near to my own heart.

In the fall of 1996, my congregation, the Legion of Christ, received word from a reporter that he was going to publish the story of 12 former Legionaries alleging that our founder, Father Marcial Maciel, had sexually abused them decades earlier. We were stunned, uncertain how to handle such outrageous - though, to those unaware of the facts, plausible - lies, but we hoped and prayed that, if we could share the truth in good faith with this reporter and his colleagues, all would be well.

Why would these elderly men attack Father Maciel? Who would conspire to allege sexual misconduct against an aging priest who started a fast-growing priestly congregation, the ecclesial movement Regnum Christi, hundreds of schools, 10 universities, and a host of other institutions and apostolates serving the Church?

A Time of Trial

This case goes back to the 1950s, when these accusers were young adult religious - Legionary seminarians. It was in this time period that all the abuse is alleged to have occurred. In 1956, Father Maciel faced an entirely different set of accusations suited to that day and age. Men who sought greater influence within the Legion accused him, among other things, of drug abuse, financial mismanagement and rebellion against the Holy See.

The charges were brought to the Vatican, which responded by conducting a thorough investigation of Father Maciel and the Legion. From 1956-58 Father Maciel was deprived of his functions as general director of the Legion and not allowed to enter the diocese of Rome. Vatican-appointed investigators lived with the Legionaries and interviewed each member personally. The investigators all reached the same conclusions: The allegations were trumped-up and baseless, and the Legion showed the potential to be of great service to the Church.

Decades later, a group of now elderly former Legionaries, Mexicans and Spaniards, sent their new accusations to the Vatican, which did not dignify them with a reply. So they took their story to an American newspaper. We asked the reporter, Gerald Renner of the Hartford Courant, to share with us the testimony of the 12 accusers. He and the Courant refused to show us the documents, but they did on occasion summarize details.

My order was faced with the difficulty of proving a negative. How do you prove that something, described in lurid detail, never happened? You would wish that the accusers would make some allegation that could be definitively disproved with documented scientific evidence. Then their utter lack of standing and credibility would be there, plain for the world to see.

Fortunately for the truth, they did just that. Twice.

First, some claimed that a former Legionary dictated a "death-bed confession" accusing Father Maciel of sexual abuse. Records show that, due to a stroke, he was unable to speak (there was no dictation) and died suddenly and unexpectedly from choking on his food (there was no deathbed).

Second, they all repeated the claim from the 1950s that Father Maciel was addicted to drugs. Precisely in order to prove or disprove such claims, a cardinal had at the time ordered blood tests on Father Maciel and separate examinations by three eminent physicians. They provided conclusive medical evidence eliminating any possibility of drug abuse.

There was more. One of the Vatican investigators went on to become bishop of Illapel, Chile. When in '96 he learned of these sex-abuse charges, Bishop Polidoro van Vlierberghe wrote to us explaining that he found them lacking all credibility, especially because during the one-on-one interviews in the '50s he "gave them every opportunity to level any accusation they had, but not once was this type of offense mentioned."

With Father Maciel under suspicion at the time the abuse had allegedly just happened, not one single person, not even those who brought other false charges against him, accused him of sexual abuse.
Besides this, we were able to catch some of the accusers in their lies. One claimed to hold a position that never existed, and spoke of a seminary that never existed.

One of the accusers actually recanted and signed sworn testimony that he had been recruited to join in lies about Father Maciel in order "to show him up." Four other men also testified they were recruited to join in the lies, but had refused to do so.

Adding Victims

The writers, Gerald Renner and Jason Berry, knew these facts at the time they published their story. So did their editors at the Hartford Courant. They knew that the accusers were caught in their lies, that some had a decades-old animus against the man they were attacking, that five men (one of whom was an accuser who recanted) had testified that the accusations were a conspiracy of lies and that medical evidence proved that none of the accusers had any credibility.

How did they handle this information?

They simply edited out numerous accusations, changed others and dropped two of the accusers - all without letting their readers know - and went ahead and published the "story."

Why?

The story alleging abuse by Father Maciel was not a stand-alone piece. It was quickly followed by one attacking Pope John Paul II and the Church as a whole for allegedly covering-up sexual abuse and turning a blind eye to the sexual realities of the day. Since then, the lies about Father Maciel get rehashed time and again with no acknowledgement of the numerous documented lies of the accusers, simply pinning the story on the latest "news hook" or using it to attack another member of the hierarchy. In short, it is a series of attacks on the Church and its teachings on sexual morality.

So this, too, is collateral damage of sexual abuse by priests.

Monstrously, sexual abuse attacks its immediate victim, violates his trust, and harms the faith of his family and community. But this sin doesn't stop with its immediate victims. Not only does such abuse put innocent bishops and priests under suspicion, but it also empowers those who disagree with the Church on matters of sexual morality to use whatever "evidence" they can - true or false - to disparage the Church, trying to force it to change.

In the Christian spirit of Father Maciel, who has forgiven his accusers, I ask us all as followers of Christ to be charitable to our bishops and priests, to realize that sex scandals, horrible as they are, are the work of those few who have betrayed us, or of those who take advantage of the innocent.

Support and love your bishops and priests. Don't let their vocations - and the truth - become "collateral damage."

As can be seen in some of the previous "reviews" of this book, the considered reaction of some to Mr. Berry's findings is: 'Kill the messenger!' This being the case, the following communiqué issued by the Vatican Press Office on May 19, 2006 is certainly germane to this book, and to the deprecatory comments about it posted here. This is excerpted from an English translation of the Italian original:

"In reference to news reports diffused concerning the person of the Founder of the Legionaries of Christ, the Reverend Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the Press Office of the Holy See communicates the following:"

"...[T]he then-Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, His Eminence Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, authorized an investigation of the accusations [of sexual abuse against Fr. Maciel--O.H.]. In the meantime, the death of Pope John Paul II [a friend and patron of Fr. Maciel--O.H.] happened and the election of Cardinal Ratzinger as the new Pontiff."

"After having submitted the results of the investigation to an attentive study, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, under the guide of its new Prefect, His Eminence Cardinal William Levada, decided - taking account of the advanced age of the Reverend Maciel and his delicate health - to renounce any canonical process and to invite the Father to a reserved life of prayer and penance, renouncing every public ministry. The Holy Father has approved these decisions."

Res ipsa loquitur--"the thing speaks for itself".

Better buy this book fast if you think it is worth it because it WILL NOT BE AROUND FOR VERY LONG!

So it happens with a book like this, based on allegations, opinions, and much stronger but not nearly enough: testimonials.

There have been recent cases of abuse, no question about that. And there was proof of these. In the case of Fr. Maciel and this book, there is a question for the authors:

Where is the hard evidence?

For the matter of testimony there are literally hundreds of relevant testimonials, of witnesses just as close or closer that will contradict the few ones in this book. There is a three year investigation with hundreds of in-depth interviews to the rest of the members of the congregation which did not reveal a single thing to support the time of thing portrayed in this book. So? Things that don't have a solid base fall.

Don't forget that Jesus himself said to judge a tree by its fruit. That never fails. Can a priest then, like Father Maciel is portrayed to be, bring about the deeds and institutions and the change for the better of the lives of tens of thousands as he has done? No. One thing is NOT COMPATIBLE with the other. As simple as that.
If you think your self more objective than the author and want the other side of the story, go to http://www.legionaryfacts.org/VOWS.html

There is more than "your word vs. my word" there. Why do the authors of this book ignore the evidence that they themselves know is out there which goes against their case? They don't even mention it. Not very objective, and why? Because that would not sell their book.

Not the first time this has happened nor will it be the last. The bible tells us not to expect a way of rose petals if we really follow Jesus, for if He Himself was betrayed, mocked, crucified, what can we expect. Go through the life of the greatest saints and compare.
http://www.catholicfounders.org/

This book can excite your mind. But without hard evidence I'd rather buy a work of fiction than spend money on a book by someone who thinks I should believe what he says as fact simply because he's writing it down and a group of people say it.

Reading this book was like riding a roller-coaster for me. I was an attachment parent and lived by Dr. Sears with the first baby. At some point I came to believe that something had to change. A Montessori teacher came to our home and helped me understand that I was holding back the development of my nine-month-old by following attachment parenting too closely. After implementing her advice, my son's developmental milestones exploded. Over the course of the first week, he started rolling over, crawling, playing independently, and was soon talking at ten months.

I am saying all of this in order to explain why I was looking for a book that celebrated self-reliance in babies. I had it proven to be beyond a doubt that it was the way to go. The same teacher recommended this book.

At first, I thought I discovered a gem that explained *everything* I was doing wrong. Actually, it did. The main *good* idea of the book (there are some big bad ones!) is that you need to create a dialog with your baby. If you stick a boob in his mouth every time he cries, he'll never learn the difference between being lonely, bored, hungry or sleepy - you solve all those the same way! So he says, when the baby first cries, do the minimum to see if that's what he was looking for:
- talk to him (was he bored?)
- cuddle him (lonely?)
- change him (wet?)
- rock him
- ... eventually nurse him.
The whole process takes two minutes - and if he stops crying before the last step - you both just learned something wonderful! You've both learned to recognize the problem and started on the path to communicating about it. Eventually, he will "ask" to be played with differently than to be fed or to be put down because he is tired.

This was just what I was missing as an attachment parent! This dialog doesn't happen by having the baby in a sling (I always did!) It happens by asking questions and getting answers in this baby-mommy-way.

The second wonderful idea from this book has to do with teaching the baby to self-calm. I've had to go through a cry-it-out bedtime situation. The baby turned out to live through it, but I just about didn't. In the end, it didn't work! I went back to trying other approaches and after six months of psychological hell he slept. I knew that if I was going to have other children, I needed to do better.

Dr. Sammons gives you a much better, gentler solution on self-calming. He talks about how to tell whether your baby needs help from you or if he is doing well on his own. He tells you that it's ridiculous to let the baby first try to self-calm when he is tired (i.e. going to sleep). Give him a chance to try it when he is in better shape! Then he'll be able to take those skills (learned gently!) and take them to bedtime. But in the meantime, his confidence will grow as he learns to manage his own world. I absolutely fell in love with this idea.

OK, so he takes this beautiful discovery and absolutely destroys your confidence in him. Suddenly this means that the baby should spend his days in the crib in another room. And you should avoid contact with him unless absolutely necessary and if you want to sit and unwind, the baby can spend a few minutes crying. I got so mad at him - but I couldn't discard the good. I really hope you buy this book and try to separate the brilliant from the callous. Sorry for such a long review, but this has been the most important issue in my life for the last 18 months and I am hoping that it'll help another mom...

But we actually took our baby to the doctor after many many nights of crying and us getting no sleep (he's now 8 months old) and the doctor determined he had Acid Reflux - which gets worse when he lays down. Glad I didn't just let him calm himself... because we tried but it took way too long for him to wear himself out. HOWEVER, we don't run to him immediately now - we do let him cry for a little while before coming in and checking on him. (A couple nights ago he got the flu in the middle of the night and had vomit all over his face, so it's important to still check on them and listen for their distinctive cries.) I do know his sleepy cry and his hungry cry now! There is definitely a difference once you start really paying attention!! So, this book was very helpful, even though some medical conditions can be one of the problems.

I bought this book out of frustration and exhaustion. Two weeks after my daughter was born, I regretted reading too much about pregnancy and not about babies! At three weeks, I was looking for anything that would make the crying stop! My daughter seemed to be crying 75% of her waking hours! She slept far less than the average infant did, so my ears never seemed to get a break. I didn't understand how such a little creature could make so much noise! I spent much of my "should be sleeping while the baby is sleeping" hours reading several books. This book includes several stories of frustrated parents of very fussy babies. I felt better knowing that I wasn't alone and I could get through all of it. Before I read the book, I kept my baby from sucking her hand because I didn't want her to become a thumb-sucker. I didn't realize it was instinctive.
Overall, reading the book didn't make my baby cry less but did make me more understanding and patient.

I have two kids. This book was INDESPENSIBLE for both of them, when they were infants. They have grown into healthy, happy 8 and 5 year olds, respectively.

"The Self-Calmed Baby" helped restore some sanity into our lives and our household. I have bought a copy for all my friends who are first-time parents. It is an excellent book, and offers excellent advice.

I don't know what planet the Moms are on who hate this book. I think it's one of the best baby advice books ever written. I wish it wasn't out of print. If you can get a copy used, by all means, get one. It's worth it.

I'm an elementary ed teacher, a certified massage therapist specializing in pregnancy/infant massage, and a day care provider. Our second daughter is just 7 weeks old. Following a traumatic birth and two weeks in NICU, she's been quite a challenge. She has a few developmental delays, cannot suck or swallow, and is fed exclusively via a naso-gastric tube, which causes severe reflux. Everything in her behavior screamed COLIC, and it was obvious she was miserable! Even with all my education and experience, I felt like a failure, unable to help my daughter. Her Occupational Therapist suggested that she was overstimulated and verging on neurological distress. I began researching and trying to find anything and everything I could about newborn sensory input and "Sensory Integration." I checked out "The Self-Calmed Baby" and began reading it, hoping it wouldn't be a "cry it out" book. It is anything but that. In just two days, I have seen dramatic improvement in my daughter's behavior. She's been telling me all along that she's in distress, and I just didn't understand what she was saying. Now that I understand her "language," I can comfort her and most importantly, help her comfort herself. She has cried only about 20 minutes in the past two days, and I actually slept 5 hours at a stretch last night. I won't call it a miracle, but our lives have certainly changed. The only thing I didn't like about the book was his lack of knowledge about the benefits of breastfeeding. Formula is *not* as good as breastmilk, and research backs it up. However, his attitudes about the feeding situation were very balanced - it's a social situation, not just a nutrition situation. The message of the book is that your child has the ability to communicate with you and calm herself - just pay attention and follow through with what your baby is telling you.

The wording of the book is very descriptive and written in plain english for most of us to understand. unfortunately the labelling on the black and white illustrations is often difficult to read. None of the illustrations are in color except the front cover.

The current edition (8/08) is the 39th published in 2004, there are British and American versions which differ slightly in terminology.

The 40th edition will be published at the end of September 2008. So if you are looking for the current text book then order either the 39th or 40th.

Have wanted to purchase this book for years, now it is available and affordable.
Such a great educational tool for anyone interested in medicine and the human body.
Thank you Amazon for making this possible.

This is, of course, the classic Gray's Anatomy, but I was slightly let down when I attempted to look up some anatomical structures, and there was no illustrations provided. I thought EVERYTHING was illustrated and explained. Fortunately, most is both, but some structures just get a brief explanation, but no illustration.

I ordered this book (even after reading reviews) because the price was right. I had hoped to have some drawings for the art student. I decided to send it back. The book is three inches thick, is 95 percent text (hard to read), and has poor quality drawings. The book cover has the best drawing. It was not suitable for my purposes.

I'm very interesting in Data Mining and i think that this book is a good introduction to this field. Thanks Amazon

As a novice to data mining, I was searching for a book that would explain the concepts, NOT mathematical formulas. This text provides the reader with a clear and comprehensive explanation of each concept, provided examples, and the readability is excellent. Who should read the book? Anyone in business - marketers to CEOs; and college students at all levels who are trying to understand data mining concepts. The book is not for mathematicians who are searching for algorithms. I would rate this book 5-stars.

While the book is easy to read and not too technical, the applications investigated by the authors are too simplistic and not really convincing as to why we should use advanced techniques. It would have been nice to add an additional, more detailed chapter comparing the various implementations of data mining techniques by software companies (SAS Entreprise Miner, Clementine, Insightfull Miner, etc.)

Anyone interested in automating and improving decisions should have this book. It is one of the classic works on data mining and well worth the read.
I really liked the book both because it is well written and because, although it drilled into a fair amount of detail about some of the techniques, it started each new section off at a high level. This allows someone without a statistical background, such as me, to read as far as I can in each section and then skip ahead to the next technique. This is a nice change from books that simply get more and more detailed as page follows page, preventing you from gaining an overview of the subject.
The book introduces data mining and a methodology for applying it, talks about some of the applications in "Marketing, Sales, and Customer Relationship Management" (as the subtitle puts it), walks through some statistical techniques and then spends the bulk of the book on various data mining techniques. It wraps up with a nice summary of how data mining plays with other technologies and with some practical advice on getting started.
One of the best summaries of where data mining fits is given early in the book where an enterprise is encouraged to:
- Notice what its customers are doing
- Remember what it and its customers have done over time
- Learn from what it has remembered
- Act on what if has learned to make customers more profitable
The authors point out that Data Mining is focused on the "Learn" stage or, as they put it data mining suggests but businesses decide.
The methodology section, and the subsequent notes that relate to applying these techniques in real life, talked about the feedback loops between steps in data mining - there is not a linear "waterfall" sequence of steps but constant iteration and learning. They also emphasized the importance of finding the right business problem at the beginning - start as someone once said, with the end in mind. This was reiterated when they quote Voltaire who said "Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien" ("The best is the enemy of good"). In other words, don't get hung up on trying to find the perfect algorithm, perfect answer. Instead build something that is good, that works, and learn and improve over time.
The authors made a big point out of the value of data mining for "mass intimacy", where you want to treat customers differently and there is a business reason to do so but where customers are too numerous to be assigned to staff. One of the issues they pointed out was that staff must be trained in customer interaction skills while also using all the data you have. The value of data mining in building a customer-centric organization cannot be overestimated.

This well-written book is an excellent introduction to the data mining and predictive analytics space. The reader should be comfortable with data and data analysis. The reader, however, does not need any pre-existing knowledge specific to data mining and predictive analytics. Much of the book, including the middle chapters which describe specific analytic techniques, has general applicability to business problems beyond CRM.

I am an actuary working in the insurance industry and am ordering my second copy of the book.

SO GOOD is not a good book. I kept reading it, hoping that it would pick up, provide something new, and gain substance. It never did. It's just a rehash of the same old story of a successful woman needing a man so badly that she accepts anything and is treated badly, as a result. Terry McMillan already has the better corner on this type of book. The ending was absolutely ridiculous and "little girlish." Hopefully, this book was the one that failed and all of Ms. Berry's other books are wonderful.

This book had no substance, it seemed to be one of the many books trying to be the next "Waiting To Exhale". I thought the ending was pretty bad, too. Instead of reinforcing the myth that all a woman needs to be happy is a man, Lisa should've tried to find fulfillment within herself. But that's just my opinion. Perhaps I'm just bitter because I didn't appreciate the comment Ms. Berry made about left handed people.

I read the reviews about this book and braced myself for the worst. I was all set to put my book up for sale, but I'm glad I'm able to form my own opinion. I thought this book was pretty good. The book is about three women, Lisa, Sundee and Danielle. All of these women are in various stages of relationships and self discovery. Sundee just married is dealing with having to share her life, but not lose herself in the process. Lisa is looking for love, and thinks she finally finds it. Danielle is a married woman who has an affair. Basically they don't realize how good their life is until the bad times roll in. It's a good read.

This book sat around in my house for about two years before I finally decided to give it a try. I just seemed to find other books to read and I never got back to this one until recently. Well, I must say that I'm very happy to have read this book. I expected a typical story of three women with LOTS and LOTS of drama but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the book was not full of drama and it was realistic from the beginning until the end. It was refreshing, for me, to read a book about three black women that didn't feel like another Waiting To Exhale clone. I found all three characters to be both realistic as well as fun to read and Venise Berry's writing style pulled me in and never let me go.

I thought it was a bit slow but it was alright. I have read better. But what I got out of it was that all of these women were searching for something and realized that what they really wanted was there all the time. Take Danielle for instance, she thought her life lacked excitement because she was a wife and mother and thought that by getting with Derrick she would find that excitement. Lisa, on the other hand, wanted the wonderful husband and kids that her sister (Danielle) had so Lisa decides to go out and create a family. Now, that was a bad move because you may not get what you are searching for when it comes to love. You must let it happen in its own time, just as she found out later. Lastly, Sundi got married without thinking about what it would be like to be married to an African man. She should have learned about her husband's culture and the wife's place in it. She just assumed that just because they lived in the U.S. that he would forget his customs. After I finished reading the book, I felt that each woman realized that life has its good and bad points and that sometimes you must make a compromise. Plus, you don't always get what you want. I would recommend this book to others. Just like I gained something positive from it, another reader may too!

An interesting look at what would happen if the technology to just suddenly change sex appeared. With the added bonus of making you a young adult, again. Unsurprisingly, reasonable amounts of shagging involved, but at its core, it is sf, not sex with some science fiction elements. Not too bad an effort. It follows a group of friends and their survival through the societal upheaval that the introduction of this alien technology causes. Some of them develop super powers, of a sort, as well, and go looking to find out what goes on.

I have read many e-books lately, or at least e-books printed into actual books. Loose ID has been one of my favorite publishers, and so I'm sorry I strayed and read this story. The thing about most e-books is that they are written in the plainest language with a lot of sexual interaction that could not be passed off in regular books, at least not before this, it is becoming more and more likely now. What made other e-books worthy of 4 stars and this one only worthy of 1 is plain and simple... the writing was awful. Written in the same verse as, say, a child's story, it does not excel in anything further than the adult themes. I don't mind the sudden 'dumbing down' of books, but I resent that they feel that we can not hope for something a little more intellectual in our science fiction, erotic or not. These authors had a great idea, it was just too bad that writing it was done overnight as quickly as possible (or so it seems).

Oh, and the amount of errors are redundant and trippable, hard to get into a story where you are wondering where the spell checker was.

Overall this is an interesting story.

It is set in a world that is a little more liberal about sex.

Ironically our "hero" is a person who is somewhat of a conservative extremist mentality. The whole poor people are poor by choice or are missing an intelligence gene attitude irritates me.

Even more ironically, it has a lot of interesting ideas of what would happen to society if we could enjoy a return to youth at the cost of a sex change. The direction is very liberal as in the open minded, progressive sense of the word.

There is only a moderate amount of sex in the story. At one point I was wondering when I was going to see sex in this story another reviewer called a cheesy sex story. There is plenty of sex here, but not as much as a cheesy sex story. There is actually a plot.

Overall an interesting story

Don't waste your valuable time on this pathetic attempt at a science fiction novel. It has nothing unique or interesting in it, only rehashed ideas about sexual role reversals and horrid attempts to project future technology. And if that wasn't enough, the writing is just awlful. The only thing I can't understand is why there are 3 follow up stories to this one.

Sometime in the future, the Sex Gates appear out of nowhere. Don falls through it accidentally, and comes out the other side as Donna. He (er, she) and his friends, and the world, try to come to terms with the repercussions of the sex gates.

A book about gender swapping. Nothing new in science fiction, but this one is done rather well. The biggest surprise for me was how the future was handled. Much science fiction (especially media based sf) has only a handful of advancements. In this near future world everything is advanced. Internet and TV have combined, people carry personal computers (some of which can be implanted), medicine and minor surgery can be accomplished at home with special kits...there's even beard cloths. Wipe face with it and your beard is gone (God, I wish I had one of those). It's nice to see a future world thought out to such detail, instead of just having faster cars.

They managed to cover a lot in terms of switching genders. After Don falls through the gate, they are back at their home drinking. Don almost drops the bottle of booze because it got heavier. Everything seems bigger when he holds them in his hand. He has trouble walking because his hips are so different (he feels like their unhinged). And he is upset because he needs to go to the bathroom but he doesn't know how.

As the title suggests, there is a LOT of sex in this book, almost to the point of being gratuitous. Given the nature of the book, though, it's understandable.

My only real complaint is that the writing is not very crisp. It's slow and plodding in places. It's obvious that this was the authors' first attempt at writing. Once you get past that, though, it turns into a pretty good study on how society might react to being able to switch genders (can only do it once though...well, for the most part anyway). It ends with a lot of questions unanswered, many of which are supposed to be covered by the other books in the series. IMHO, this is worth checking out.

I started reading the stories from this book to my students, now they take turns reading them to their peers and evoking discussions.

Very good book with a treasure of advice for teens.

When I saw this book in my school library I just picked it up thinking it would be just like all the other "chicken soup for the soul" books. This book is about life, love, friendship, and tough issues of a teenager. This book really touched me with all the stories. I believe this book isn't as good as any other "chicken soup for the soul". But the writings are up there. They still touched me. Some made me cry, some made me laugh, and some made me mad. I recommend this book to other teens that are going to these problems of life.

Taste Berries For Teens was just like any other "Chicken Soup" book. If you do not tire from reading these stories of hardships and achievements,then Taste Berries For Teens is great for you. Though, I found it a bit dull; it did have its shinning moments. The shinning moments in the book were brief and strong. Taste Berries For Teens made me become a slightly better person.

When I saw this book I was really excited because I thought "another chicken soup for the soul book!" Well I was wrong! I couldn't believe how corny and fake the stories were. and the themes created by the authors throughout the chapters made it even worse. The book claims to be original but it is really a take off of the chicken soup for the souls and an awful one at that! i havent even finished the book yet and i don't think i ever will! if you want to read REAL stories by real teens then the chicken soup for the soul books are the way to go!! not these books!!

This book has obviously stirred up a lot, and well it should. But the text is much less accusatory than most reviewers acknowledge. The authors are content to expose the misunderstanding of the media's audience. The issue around pro-Israel bias is more implicit in their data than explicit - the confusion tends to swing in Israel's favor. For their part, the authors make it clear that they feel it arises less out of determined bias, and more out of reporter ignorance and media formats that reduce the scope for historical information.

With this in mind, I'll just try and describe what the book is and is not.

The authors used quantitative and qualitative data to analyze British news content and its effect on British news consumers. That means they tracked numbers of references in reports, but they also asked questions and inferred meaning from discussions that can't be quantified. Combined, this provided them with a good sense of what is reported and also how it is received and understood by its target audience. The real strength of this book is the focus groups they ran to ascertain how well various audiences understand the conflict. This blows other studies on coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict out of the water, linking up the analysis of media coverage with an analysis of its actual impact. The results are certainly worth reading.

The book is primarily focused on British news and news consumers. There is a small American sample, but this is too limited and the vast differences in British and American media coverage of the conflict are not well covered.

This book describes the conclusions of their research. It is not exactly bedtime reading and I wouldn't recommend it for the casual reader. Nevertheless, for those interested in the conflict and its coverage by the media, this is definitely the most solidly researched report I've read.

I will never forget this. One day, during the time of the second Intifada, I, my mother and my father were sitting in front of the TV watching the news, when images of the goings-on in the Occupied Territories come up on the screen voiced-over by a commentary on the harsh measures taken by the IDF in order to stifle the uprising. My father turned to us and made the following remark: "That'll serve them right. Excessive force and strict measures is the only thing the Palestinians will ever understand and the only way order will be restored to this place and people (he meant the Israelis I presume only wasn't consciously aware of it) will be able to live in peace like proper human beings". (Truth be told, although an educated man, my father is hopelessly clueless on the issue). Upon hearing this remark, I noticed my mother turning to my father and giving him an angry, disapproving and contemptuous look. However, although it was obvious what she really wanted to do was stand up and start yelling at him in protest of what he had just said, all she did was mutter something along the lines of "This is nonsense" and just left it at that. She knew she had to say something, she knew what she had just heard somehow couldn't have been right, only she simply did not know what to say, for although my dear mother is also well educated, she is also clueless on the issue. As for me, at the time I'm sorry to say no less clueless than my father or mother, I also felt there must have been something really wrong with my father's excessively polarized view, but not being able to pin-point exactly what, I kept my silence.

Since then, I'm happy to say I have done everything in my power to improve my situation. Neither my father nor my mother, however, have been so determined, and after nearly five years they remain as clueless as they were then.

There is a point to this story and a very disturbing truth which emerges: unless one develops an honest interest in this whole issue and starts delving into history and facts and figures, one is bound to fall easy prey to the superficiality and inadequacy of TV news. One could argue here that the same would apply not just to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and one would be correct, as long as TV news coverage is primarily dependant on such things as the pressures of time, viewers' limited attention span, the shock factor, ratings and of course external influence and intimidation.

As I have already taken up enough of your time, I will just say that this book does a very good job of analyzing the whats and hows and whys of media reporting and the way in which public opinion is shaped and understanding is affected. Very interesting and insightful study, it will explain a lot.

There are lots of reviews of this book, mainly politically partisan and strongly pro- or anti- the political conclusions drawn. Sad really - because this was not, I think, what this book was really about. Palastine was merely the context of the study.
This book exposed to me something I had sort of known about myself but hadn't really dared admit.
It is therefore important because I suspect that most readers will also be left with this same enlightening discomfort, and hopefully a determination not to let this situation continue.
The focus group studies reported in the book showed that a significant proportion of us do not know enough about the background of a currentl political situation to be able to interpret the significance of a short (20 second) news report.
The reporters who live day by day with a situation whether it is Afghanistan or Palastine fall into a trap of assuming that their listeners(viewers) are as deeply immersed in the subject as they are. Even if the reporters did want to give some background, the news programme producers would cut out this part of a report, because they work on the assumption that the viewing public have an attention span of around 20 seconds. There is therefore a real danger that the snap-shots produced as news items will become misleading. This puts the onus on any half intelligent member of a democratic society to make sure that they do not base their opinions only on the news however hard that organisation tries to present it fairly.

This book offers up the same old grule. the thesis is simple and common: Everyone supports Israel, everyone is brainwashed and learns only to love Israel, no one knows about the plight of the palistinian people, everyone is pro-israel, the media is pro-Israel, the governments, the world, therefore we must point out how unfair this is. This book pretends to use statistics to show that the media is pro-Israel, the idea here is that the myth of 'good' Israel must be exploded. This is the standard anti-Israel theory and diatribe, set up a situation where you convince someone how 'everyone' is taught Israel is wonderful so that you can brainwash them yourself with anti-Israel rhetoric. Its like the old brocken record of claiming that 'everyone' knows muslim women are oppressed so we must explain how muslim women are actually better off then muslim men.

This book is full of half truths, partial lies and some outright falsehood. Mohammed al Dura for one was shot by Palistinains. Secondly just because a few british kids dont know anything about Israel doesnt neccesarily lead to the conclusion that means the media is biased. THose kids also dont know anything about Ghana, does this mean the media is biased towards Myanmar? One doesnt preclude the other, or lead to it.

For the anti-Israel mafia this book is required reading and will insulate their world where they beleive everything is pro-Israel, despite what they see on the evening news.

Seth J. Frantzman

This book does note that news about Israel is often spiced with editorial remarks. But rather than asking for better journalism, it merely pleads for even more anti-Israeli bias.