Bradley Books

This is a delightful, charming and insightful collection of commentaries of each weekly Torah portion. Deinitely suitable for Jews and Christians alike. Each Torah portion has three succint comments from different contributors.

Artson, Bradley. "The Bedside Torah", McGraw Hill. 2000.

Looking at the Torah in Modern Times

Amos Lassen

"The Bedtime Torah" is a wonderful introduction to the study of Jewish texts which has a lot to say and does so in an engaging manner. The language is easy to comprehend and the insights are thought provoking. Best of all is that the chapters are just the right length for a quick read before going to bed.
We are taken through the wisdom of the Torah and we see its counsel and the holiness of the writings that form the core of the Jewish religion. Rabbi Artson concentrates on the Jewish personal values of love and family and of helping others and he gives us a personal and loving look at Judaism. The book is basically a series of commentaries--three for each Torah portion and each section of the Torah is given to us in language that is easily understood. This makes it easy for those who have not read the Torah in its original to get a general idea what the holy books say. It is not only interesting but fun to read different interpretations of any Torah passage as modern insights are brought in so that the writings become applicable to out daily lives. The book also induces one to look to the Torah itself and by getting a good night's rest before doing so increases understanding and awareness.

Rabbi Artsen provides a short synopsis of the weekly Torah Portion. The Rabbi then writes three different encapsulated views about the parasha for the week. The author brings modern insight to the ancient laws of the Jewish people.

The book is written with the plan to bring the Torah into our lives sprinkling a daily taste of the ancient scrolls into our lives. I recommend this book for those who want to try understanding the Torah by getting a quick read daily and perhaps use this to whet our apatite for the full version of the Five Books of Moses.

I was stunned by Mr. Hinkle's criticism that this book is "Judeacentric." Well, a Rabbi writing about a book that is central to our religion - what did he expect? If he wants a balanced viewpoint, he should read a comparable book by an academic scholar of religion. I would never dream of criticizing a Christian scholar for writing from a Christian standpoint, a Buddhist writing from a Buddhist standpoint, etc. Allow we Jews the same courtesy, Mr. Hinkle.

This is very nice bed time reading that makes you want to stay awake and read on to the next entry. I love the different angles for each Torah portion which gives the feeling of a very good Torah discussion. All the insightful commentary in this book brings out the beauty of the Torah. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about Judaism and anyone who wants add more insight to their weekly Torah study.

I read this book at the end of my most recent career-transition period; I wish I had read it at the beginning. The book contains several exercises designed to get you thinking creatively and proactively about your most recent position so that you can move on to your next one. The author also spends a lot time drilling home the need to be persistent, and set achieveable job search goals in weekly increments.

Most insightful for me however, were passages detailing the extent to which friends and family members are affected by the psychological fall out common to all job transitions. If you're facing a period of career transition, you owe it them (and yourself) to read this book.

This is good guide for handling a career set back and positioning yourself to move forward with confidence. A mix of no-nonsense advice and practicle exercises, I found that Richardson's method added value to my situation. I STRONGLY recommend doing the exercises, especially in the chapter on moving forward. Some of it can seem a little odd (like writing a scathing letter to folks in your past job, then burning it as a form of release from the past) but they actually do help. Finding yourself in the job hunt, especially with little or no notice, is an unpleasant thing, and Richardson helps you look at the many facets of this situation and then develop your plan for moving forward to your next position.

As a career consultant, I'm on the lookout for books to recommend to my clients. Career Comeback passes the test.

One preliminary note: The cover refers to failed business ventures, but this topic does not appear to be covered. Publishers, not authors, usually write cover copy, so we can't fault Richardson. I believe you'd have to make major adaptations to these 8 steps if your business goes south.

The most valuable information comes in the first half of the book: dealing with being fired. I agree with just about everything Richardson says. He's one of the few authors to recommend sitting down with a financial planner right after you talk to your family. His advice on dealing with an employer after being fired is very sound. And many will find the exercises useful: Review what went wrong -- in and out of your control.

So mostly I like Steps 1-4 of Richardson's 8-step program.

Step 5 ("Find out what matters to you") is a good start, but I think Richardson underestimates the degree to which we identify with our professions. "You're still the same person" strikes me as one of those irritating, useless bromides. Many of us will be branded as an "ex" for a long time and will have difficulty losing that identity, no matter how hard we try. And the experience of losing a career we love can change us in deep ways.

"One role is temporarily diminished while another moves into its place..." won't help those who identify strongly with a profession. And your other roles will be affected by job loss. Friends view you differently. You may not be able to afford the activities you enjoyed with your friends and family. Some arts organizations actually encourage high-level volunteers to resign when they no longer hold jobs.

Steps 6 and 7 - "Find your next move" and "Find your next job" -- are necessarily oversimplified because they're single chapters on topics deserving a whole book. "Go back to an old job" is possible but not likely, and you'll be in a one-down position. And downshifting to a smaller company probably won't hurt your career - but it might.

I disagree most strongly with the author's sections on testing. If you're unemployed and money is tight, skip the tests. Some of my clients have paid hundreds of dollars for tests that proved useless. At mid-career, they'll almost always show you're best qualified for the job you have. And most career tests are so unreliable they shouldn't be used for guidance. Read Annie Paul's book, The Cult of Personality, before taking out your checkbook.

The section on hiring coaches and counselors needs to be expanded. Counselors typically are trained in counseling processes and tests, not careers. Many "career coaches" have little experience with careers, except their own. Some offer expertise; others have "training" in asking questions and helping you "find the answers within you." And you have to decide if you agree with value systems like "law of attraction."

The fee range quoted for coaches and counselors is low. I think you should expect to pay a minimum of $125 - $250 for a single session, which often includes follow-ups. I do know of some coaches and counselors who offer lower fees and frankly, you get what you pay for. Packages cost less and (as the author correctly says) are more helpful.

And to choose a consultant, I would not follow Richardson's suggestion to rely on credentials. Instead, I recommend reviewing websites, brochures and other writing. Invest a few bucks in an e-book before signing up. Coaching organizations do not "verify skills" or enforce any quality control. I once tried to report an "accredited" coach's blatant unethical conduct. Both the coaching school and the ICF refused to get involved, let alone take the coach's name off their "recommended" lists.

Step 8, "back on track," is quite good, especially sections on buyer's remorse and admitting you made a mistake. I would add that a return to work, following a long break or layoff, could be the perfect time to start working with a career coach. Learn from experience and make a good first start.

Finally, I don't think we ever make a "complete comeback." We simply make progress. And, as I noted earlier, we're different. And we should always keep a safety net ready.

Despite these quibbles, I'd recommend this book to clients and website visitors who need to go from Setback to Comeback. You could do a lot worse.

Richardson's advice hits home for those impacted by the severe downturn in the economy. Not a sugar coated job search guide to writing a resume, etc., etc., but a roadmap to get on with your life and manage the emotional impact of putting your career back together successfully!

Perhaps you were downsized out of your last job. Maybe your previous employer went belly up. Or it could be that you were in business for yourself and your company failed due to unanticipated market changes. Whatever the reason, you find yourself in the unenviable position of seeking a new way to earn a living. You may have been living paycheck to paycheck and need to find a new gig immediately. Or you may be fortunate enough to have saved a few bucks for a rainy day so you have a little time and space to work with here.
Whatever your situation, Bradley Richardson has written a book that absolutely deserves your consideration. "Career Comeback" was really the end result of the author going through just such a crisis himself. I have read a few of these books over the years and let me assure you this is clearly the best of the bunch. This book is a cornucopia of ideas and useful advice. He points out many of the useful resources all around you (family, friends, church, agencies etc.) and encourages you to make use of them. I was particularly pleased with the dozens of websites that Richardson recommends that are sure to aid the diligent job seeker in his/her search for that elusive "ideal" situation. Whether you are looking for work in the manufacturing or retail sector or are a seasoned executive who was a victim of "downsizing" this book will prove invaluable in your job search. I will be integrating much of what I have learned here into my own job search. Highly recommended.

I purchased this book for my husband who read it from cover-to-cover in 2 days. He really enjoyed the humor, as well as the information provided. When he finished it, I picked it up to see what all of the laughing was about. I couldn't help but laugh my way through it also.. very enjoyable and a quick read. I have a newly found sympathy for my husband who has been wonderful putting up with pregnant me. I would highly recommend this book for dads-to-be who are looking for something a little more focused on what they (the dads) are through with their wives.

Of the four books I bought, this was the most informative for new dads.

What surprised me most was Richardson's terrific sense of humor. Some of the book is just hilarious, for example, his description of a newborn (for the inexperienced) as a "hairy coneheaded alien." For me personally, humor eases anxiety and tension, and it's as valuable as Richardson's hard-won practical advice.

and therefore, my husband loved it! I would never have gotten him to read one of my "baby books" since they reiterate a point several times, but he realy enjoyed this! It's funny, to the point, interesting, and helpful. The author goes over the basics of pregnancy, hospitals, and baby care from an involved dad's perspective. I highly reccommend it!

Being a new dad, I was looking for a book which would give me tips with my newborn son. Based upon the reviews, "Daddy Smarts" sounded like the perfect book. Unfortunately I was extremely disappointed that the vast majority of the book was dedicated to pre-birth topics such as "naming your baby", "getting ready for labor day", "How is my baby developing in the womb".

There are 29 chapters in the book and 24 of them were dedicated to before the baby was born. Ch. 25 is titled "Going Home (from the hospital)". I was expecting a little more of this book to be dedicated to advice for fathers for their first year.

Of the three stories, Jaci Burton's Wild Nights is the one I reread. Perhaps because it involved Las Vegas and a veterinarian, things not tied together in anything I've read, I found the combination intriquing. The characters are believable. Burton is an author I'll be looking for. The other two stories were enjoyable, but not as compelling as Wild Nights.

It's not every day that you'll find an anthology with all stories being equally engaging. Exclusive by talented authors Eden Bradley, Jaci Burton and Lisa Renee Jones is a rare treat. Be prepared to explore the darker side of desire.


Sanctuary by Eden Bradley

Devin gets talked into going to a fetish club, and discovers she likes it. One of the guys putting on the show, Shaye, notices her and she's instantly hot for him and for what she sees him doing in the club's Ring. He asks her to come and play and she resists, but she finds she can't get him or his commanding sexuality out of her head. She knows it would be dangerous to get involved with him and she thinks she doesn't want to relinquish control to him, but he's irresistible and they connect. Shaye is shocked by how much he feels for Devin. He doesn't want her to have the power to hurt him. But neither of them can stop what they're feeling.

This story is HOT! I really liked that Shaye's self control extends to not taking the domination thing too far. His obvious care for her pleasure is really nice. I'd like to see that happening more often in D/s stories. My one issue is that love seems to come a bit too quickly for these two, but they're so fabulous together that you can easily overlook it.


Wild Nights by Jaci Burton

Mike Nottingham is a veterinarian from Oklahoma, attending a convention in Las Vegas. His friend gives him an invitation to an exclusive sex club called Wild Nights. Mike has been looking for that elusive something that will satisfy him, to no avail. He has had great sex, but always feels like there's something missing.

Grace Wylde is the owner of the club, and Mike's friend says she's unattainable. Just the kind of challenge Mike has been looking for. They meet and they feel a connection and a feeling of being comfortable with one another that they haven't felt with anyone else. Mike knows he won't get anywhere with Grace unless he's different than all the other men who usually try to put the moves on her. He also knows how to make this a unique encounter for Grace, and in doing so he finds his own elusive pleasure. But Grace doesn't want to get entangled with a man who's leaving in a couple of days, and the connection she feels with Mike scares her. Will two strong-willed individuals be able to make it work? Will they even care enough to try?

I wasn't completely happy with Grace throughout this story, but I think I understand why she does the things she does. This is a fantastic tale of two jaded people who finally find that special someone. Jaci Burton really makes these characters sizzle.


Purple Magic by Lisa Renee Jones

Jolene Morrison is searching underground sex clubs for her missing best friend, Carrie Wright. She seeks out an ancient warrior vampire named Drago in the hopes that he'll be willing and able to help her find her friend. When they meet, they both feel a profound chemistry. Their mutual attraction is so intense that Drago wonders if Jolene might be his mate. He never thought he'd find his mate, and he's not even sure he wants it to happen because it will make him soft and vulnerable. Jolene will have to trust Drago if she wants to save Carrie. But at what cost to her own safety?

I enjoyed seeing the strong slayer agree to share control with his mate. It goes against everything that he is, and it illustrates the depth of their bond. Lisa Renee Jones has done a great job of world building in a relatively short story.

Three tales, all exceptionally well written and power packed with emotion and steamy sensuality. You'll love Exclusive.

5 Kisses, 2 Peppers (anal sex)

~Lindy
Reviewer, TwoLips Reviews, LLC
www.TwoLipsReviews.com

Loved this book and all the stories. Wish I was there in each story.
will keep and reread again. wish purple magic was longer I loved it. And the other two stories too.

Two out of 3 stories anyways.

Sanctuary was a good story. Not the best but not the worst either. I guess it's because I'm not overly fond of complete submission type of drama. The scenes were hot but the storyline was a little "not my cup of tea". However I must admit that it was pretty well written in my standard. I did enjoy it just not into it. 3 stars for me

Wild Nights is more to my taste. I was very thrilled to know that Mike got his own story after me being extremely disappointed in Laci Burton last installment "Wild, Wicked, and Wonton". As much as I like Seth, I felt that it was a sad ending because Mike was left out of the equation. I wasn't disappointed for long was I? Thank goodness for that. Anyways, Wild Nights was a fairly awesome and well written story. The scene was sizzling hot and the ending was tearful. In a happy way of course. Wild Nights is actually the reason why I gave this rating a 4 star. If it was a stand alone, I would probably give it a 5 being that we would get more story out of it of course.

Purple Magic is the only story that I didn't bother finishing. I'm not saying that it started out horrible. I read the first 3 pages but then I found that it's not my type of read. If I were to continue just to finish it, I might give it a truely unbiased opinion. So I opt not to. I do enjoy reading paranormals because I am a fan of Christina Feehan,Nalini Singh and Karen Marie Moning and WAS a huge fan of Sherrilyn Kenyon but I don't think i can be a fan of paranormals eroticas. At least not yet. Maybe one day when I'm back into those vampire fetish zone, I'll come back and read this story. So I won't give this story a rating.

Sanctuary by Eden Bradley

An innocent young woman ventures into the dungeons of a private club to broaden her erotic horizons. Devin finds herself thinking thoughts she has never had before. Mostly, her thoughts center around Shaye. Wondering what would happen if she goes through with them - where will they lead her. And how can she say no?

Sanctuary is a well-written story that draws you into the mind of a woman who has control of her life and who realizes maybe control is not what she wants or needs.

Wild Night by Jaci Burton

The owner of a swinger's club ignores her hands-off-the-customers policy when a certain sexy newcomer joins. Grace Wylde has her life the way she likes it. However, it does not hold any surprises. One night, Mike Nottingham walks into that life and shows her that maybe she has not seen or felt as much as she thought she had.

Wild Night is a well-crafted tale of two people learning that the games they have always enjoyed may not be all there is to life.

Purple Magic by Lisa Renee Jones

A daring woman searches for her lost friend in the hedonistic world of Manhattan's underground nightspots. Jolene Morrison's best friend has disappeared. In her search to find her Jolene ends up requesting help from Drago, a Slayer. But can she pay the price?

Purple Magicdraws you in and makes you wonder, what would you do for your family? For your friends? As well, it makes you realize you can meet your soul mate when you least expect it. It is well-written.

Exclusive is three well-written stories of women and men learning more about themselves and their boundaries. Each author took their story in a different direction than the others while still maintaining the same level of excellent writing. After I finished reading I sat back and realized that I could not choose a favorite. Each story was unique and steamy. I was left satisfied and yet wishing all three stories were their own book rather than part of a collection. I will be looking to find other stores by all three authors in the future. I highly recommend this book.

Barb
reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

Thi book is known to change - not much but a bit - a person's life. A very importan bit. My younger son JF read this book at a very young age I believe he had 9 or 10). He fell in love with the book and read it so many times the pages are lose. His favourite character is the big lizzard Aratak. It's still his internet nick, used and reused many times(he's 19 years old know). The fact that his favourite character is a cool philosopher and poet (and a terror with a bat in his hands) says much about my son's personality. I recomend his book for space travelers of all ages.

I read this book about 10 years ago and went searching for it so I could read it again. Too bad it's out of print. This book is very entertaining. It's a worthwhile read. I couldn't put it down.

The previous post gives a lot of the plot and I don't want to spoil it so I'll steer clear of the plotline, and perhaps offer some of the conceptuals of the novel.

While this novel takes what is now a cliche concept - take a random group of diverse "people", throw them together in a dire situation and let them make the best of a bad situation, I'd like to think that this one is different enough that you could go look for it yourself.

Keeping in mind that this book was written 30 years ago, it is still not outdated. Space travel is still somewhere in the future, and some of the ideas Marion had back then are still likely to happen.

I thoroughly enjoyed her naming conventions for similar races (protosimians are humanlike species, protofelines are cat like races, protosaurians are based on reptillian species, etc) and the concept of the hunt is still a terrific idea.

The race known (and barely so) for hunting is the mystery that keeps you intrigued, but not necessarily the key point of entertainment itself. As noted, the hunt only endures the final third of the novel. The first two thirds of the novel are purely character interaction, and the depth of these characters in who they are, how they live and what they want of their lot in life is very clear.

Dane is an adventurer. Unfortunately everything worth doing on Earth has been done. But he does what's already been done because he loves the adventure. At one point he asks himself if perhaps he's merely an adrenaline junkie - but it is clear that he is! Still, he's a reasonable man, and has a strong sense of right and wrong.

Dallith, however, is an empath and for good reason, empaths from Spica IV rarely leave their planet. Marion has put a lot of thought into how an empath would react to various situations. The despair of her cellmates is the first reaction we see her emulate, through to the strong will of Dane, through to the anger of the Mekkhars (cat-men) - and this is merely on the ship! In training we see more of her character than in the cell, because she begins voicing her own opinion. And then of course, everything climaxes in the hunt. So does Dallith's emotion.

Rhianna is a strong willed woman that Marion loves to use as a stereotype, from what I have read. She is headstrong, yet supple. She is a warrior, fierce yet kind. Typical of an Amazon stereotype, she perfers the spear and close combat self defence.

Aratak is definitely one of my favourite characters - he is a ten foot tall protosaurian with glowing gills and philosophy to learn from. There are as many proverbs thrown in for amusement as combats, and the wise egg has something to say about every known situation - if you listen to Aratak long enough. Aratak is a peaceful creature by nature, but is devastating when desperation takes its course.

Even Cliff-Climber becomes a loved character once he is bested in close combat by Rhianna - merely a protosimian, and a female at that! But Cliff Climber has a strong sense of honour, not unlike the samurai that Dane ends up envying through the honour of using a sword.

The hunt itself is the culmination of the characters - the primitive still hidden within the civilised people. We see how our loved characters come out of their shell when it comes to the crunch. How the nerves and wit of five sacred prey manage to have anyone come out alive after 11 solid days of never knowing what is going on. Always being hunted, and never knowing who is the hunter, or who is actually a sacred prey like themself.

Marion throws in a lot of hidden philosophy on the standards of mankind which I could still relate to 30 years down the trail. She is truly a genious, and when she partners with her brother - a combat specialist, there is no stopping a good story, and no putting it down til you finish. And if you have read any of Paul's novels you'll know that this could not possibly end without a combat of epic proportions.

I read this perhaps 17 years ago. I remember that my copy became quite ragged through rereading before I gave it to a friend who equally enjoyed it. I'd like to think it's still being circulated amongst friends.

Others have summarized the plot. I'll just reiterate that this book is a great way to spend a few hours if you're a sci-fi or fantasy fan.

Paul Edwin Zimmer, Bradley's brother, was initially an uncredited co-author. The lack of recognition wasn't Bradley's idea, and Zimmer was credited from the first on their sequel, THE SURVIVORS. The protagonist, Dane Marsh, is a lone wolf heroic type Zimmer wrote very well, along the lines of his character Roger Hogg in "The Hand of Tyr" (see GREYHAVEN). Marsh is a romantic born between romantic ages; he wants adventures, but in the late twentieth century, the world's fresh out. Every place has been explored, and somebody else has already been first to do anything worth doing. He saves his envy for whoever'll be first to hike around the Moon on foot, though, and gets on with his life - sailing around the world alone, even though it's been done.

At that point, a flying saucer kidnaps him right off his boat, and he learns that there may be a few more adventures left, after all. :)

The proto-feline Mekhar are notorious for their slave-raids, having refused Unity membership several times rather than repudiate the practice. Slaves being luxury goods, it pays to avoid damaging the merchandise, and even to install translator disks in their captives - although the Mekhar leave Dane's fellow prisoners to explain the situation. (Interestingly enough, proto-simians - humanlike beings - far from being lords of creation, are looked down upon, being perpetually "in season" and thus slaves of their sexual appetites. Superiority lies elsewhere: the proto-felines invented interstellar travel, and the proto-saurians generally look down on *everybody*. Aratak, the follower of the Divine Egg who befriends Dane, is an exception to this last.)

Dane's the only prisoner from Earth; the others figure somebody's being chewed out for grabbing a boat carrying less than a dozen people. Rianna's archeological team, for example, lost their gamble that the Mekhar wouldn't hit the otherwise deserted satellite they were working on.

Until Dane's arrival, nobody tried to escape more than once; not only are all the odds on the guards' side, but severe injuries may be a death sentence. Most of the prisoners have a fatalistic attitude that Dane violently disagrees with; he alone, for instance, interferes with the decision of the only captive from Spica IV, the empath Dallith, to refuse food and let herself die. (Oddly enough, while Aratak, the giant proto-saurian philosopher, remains silent, the vibrant Rianna protests Dane's interference, for reasons he comes to understand only much later.) Dane is the one who, spotting a security hole, masterminds an escape attempt - only to learn that it was just what the Mekhar were waiting for.

The final part of the Mekhar's standard operating procedure is to skim off the ringleaders in their escape-attempt test on each raid, and to sell them to the species known as the Hunters of the Red Moon for the role of Sacred Prey. The Hunters' only interest in life is to hunt the Most Dangerous Game: intelligent quarry, who can give them a challenge. Every batch of Sacred Prey is given some weeks to prepare on the Hunters' World before being taken to the Red Moon, and must survive there only until the next eclipse. They're even given a choice of weapons, short of firearms, but even that's disquieting; the Armory doubles as a huge trophy collection of the weapons of particularly excellent Prey. (In a really *cool* scene, Dane recognizes one weapon as the most perfect Mataguchi he's ever seen - something a samurai would *never* have left behind.)

The story revolves around Dane, as protagonist, and his fellow survivors Rianna, Dallith, and Aratak, with one startling addition: Cliff-Climber, a Mekhar guard who screwed up badly during the escape attempt, and took this option as an honorable alternative to suicide. While he knows more about the Hunters than any of the others, his proto-feline people take the proverb "curiosity killed the cat" very much to heart, and even though - he *says* - one of his own kinsmen survived a Hunt, he knows little about their destination. Dane and his companions have little more than the Hunters' word that successful quarry will be rewarded and allowed to leave. They don't even know what the Hunters look like; until the Hunt itself, the Sacred Prey only interact with robot caretakers, leading to a *lot* of theories among the Prey.

This is a mystery as well as an adventure story; only the last third covers the Hunt proper, the rest being split evenly between the slaveship and the Prey's prep time. Dane and the others must try to figure out the Hunters, knowing that the odds are against them. At the feast celebrating the end of the previous Hunt and the beginning of theirs, they learn that 47 Hunters faced 74 Prey. Nineteen Hunters perished.

*One* Sacred Prey survived.

I wanted to learn more about my newest interest and this book has been great. A good overview balanced with enough details without being overwhelming - so happy I bought it!

A beautiful book, I see something new each time I flip through it. It may not be the perfect encyclopedia for specialists, but for people like me who just love beautiful things, it is great fun to have and contains a lot of interesting facts about mid-century design.

this book is very good if you are interested in retro, modern design. I highly recommend this book.

An absolutely stunning book & a must for any mid ce
ntury enthusiast. Fabulous photographs & narration.
Very inspiring.

This book is filled with spectacular color photos of mid-century modern home interiors. Lots of ideas here for color schemes, furniture layout and incorporating mid-century aspects into any room of your home.

This book contains a lot of excellent tables, algorithms and summaries that I could not find in any other review book. It seems to be a great companion while doing review questions. I also found this book to be an outstanding source when I prepared for work rounds to teach the interns and students. I can highly recommend this book to all residents. I wish I had it when I started my residency. This is an extraordinary board preparation material as it basically includes the core of the requirements posted by ABIM. It is easy to read; with very affordable tables. I highly recommend it to be read through residency as it highlights important core concepts that you can go and research further for a deeper insight in other kind of textbooks or resources. Is very complementary to frontrunners as it let you round and define the important core material. This book provides a nice balance in terms of thoroughness, readability and ability to pinpoint to the high yield material. Best book review!

I really loved this book because it took risks that paid off nicely when it came to remembering all my medicine for my Step 3 & ABIM exams. It basically takes all of Internal Medicine and presents it as memory aids; very cool. The best part is I didn't need "mnemonics to help me remember the mnemonics". This was due in large part to very thoughtful design, where the anagrams themselves generally are related to the disorder/differential/findings/etc being summarized (eg "P.H.O.T.O." for Amiodarone Toxicities (photosensitivity, photophobia, etc); "P.A.I.N.L.E.S.S." for Ecthyma Gangrenosum; and "Yer Leg B.U.M.P.S. for Erythema Nodosum).

There's also a lot of humor to help keep your eyes wide open (eg "B.A.N.A.N.A. P.E.E.L.S." for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy which both helps to remember the vertical gaze palsy; impaired downward gaze; and frequent falls AND, of course, helps you easily recall the mnemonic itself). All these mechanisms really make a huge difference when you've got to quickly recall critical differentials, findings, key labs, etc in an exam situation, where time is of the essence, and there's little room for error.

My favourite sections of the book were the "Quick Diffs", the "Dermatology Quick Links", and the Appendix itself. The Appendix is priceless and summarizes all 400 mnemonics in the book, and you can quickly find the best memory aid for any topic you have to know or present on, and also helps big-time on rounds every day.

All the clever anagrams, pearls, summaries, algorithms, unique tables, and memory aids in general, really made this book not just a quick read and fun studying, but truly "memorable".

Actually, the BEST part of the book for me was that it was free. I used it alongside Frontrunners Syllabus and their Q&A in prepping for my exams, and it came free when I got my package thru their [...] website.

My favourite mnemonics are "F.A.T. L.I.P.S." for Hereditary Angioneurotic Edema (HANE); "I H.O.A.R.D. G.A.S." for Celiac Sprue; and "B.E.T. T.H.E. F.A.R.M." for Farmer's Lung. But I'm sure you'll have your own. High yield, one of my favourite books, and a huge advantage on my boards.

This is a great idea for a book. Unfortunately, most of the mnemonics suffer from being not terribly useful. Many of them are based on acronyms that have no relevance to the actual topics. Even worse, any given letter -- e.g. "O" in L.O.W. -- might be explained to be a way to remember "Overall, you need to remember that the anion gap is Na - (Cl + HCO3)." In other words, pretty difficult to remember.

The book reads as if a bunch of people just contributed their own mnemonics, and they were all added in random (alphabetical) order without attention to whether or not they were good or useful at all. Nor are there any graphical/visual mnemonics, except for one nice diagram on tick-borne illness.

There are other books that excel at mnemonic aids (such as the "Made Ridiculously Simple" series from publisher Medmaster -- though those books are not geared specifically for the Boards.

Given the free resources online at MedicalMnemonics.com, you might want to check that out first, or even instead.

What an incredible find. This is a book that basically summarizes all of internal medicine for the boards IN super-clever MNEMONICS. I've never seen a book of mnemonics quite this comprehensive. Of the 400 mnemonics, I have my favorite 20. This book really helped me excel on my USMLE Step 2 and USMLE Step 3. My friend used it for his Internal Medicine boards and loved it even more than me. It was part of Frontrunners Internal Medicine Board Review curriculum . Major kudos to Frontrunners, and thanks.

As Residency Director, I invested in Turbo Mnemonics for the Boards and some of Frontrunners other Internal Medicine Board Review resources for our own internal medicine board review prep course in an effort to boost seriously lagging results. All the residents who used the book, which we had to keep on a tight leash, found Turbo Mnemonics to be a truly brilliant review of internal medicine through mnemonics. Retention rates were extremely high with this book when we did our own weekly quizzes. The book is extremely well organized, and the mnemonics are simply genius. All of the mnemonics are either named with a term related to the disease itself that's being summarized, OR are simply so clever, that you can't possibly forget them! In the end, using Turbo Mnemonics, Frontrunners Internal Medicine Board Review Syllabus along with the companion 1300 practice Q&A was the PERFECT recipe for success! For the first time ever in our institution, pass rates shot to 100%, making this Residency Director one happy guy. And residents came back after their exam saying the material in these 3 books was all over their internal medicine boards. Turbo Mnemonics is a brilliant board prep resource and nothing else even comes close when it comes to its 400 extremely clever clinical medical mnemonics. Naysayers (those shamelessly pitch their own products while pretending to be reviewing this book--see below-- only call attention to their desperation and L.O.W. I.Q., a mnemonic which stands for "Low on Wisdom. Insincere Qualms." Because of it's popularity among our own residency program, we ended up having to purchase individual copies for each resident, including our second years, who will be entering the ABIM zone soon. I keep mine next to my Harrison's. Frontrunners has samples of all 3 books on its website www.frontrunners.info. Outstanding internal medicine board review curriculum. Frontrunners, thanks for the pass rates. You make us all look good!

I picked this up, wanting to read her childhood experiences in Germany during WWII. Those were vivid and candid, telling of her conflicts with her mother and the hardships of the time. They led me further into her life as she moved to America, reveled in travel experiences as a stewardess, floundered through a failed marriage, developed an academic career, fell in love with Bill Bradley, juggled motherhood and career, and finally coped with breast cancer.
It's a full life, but well examined. She reveals her turmoil and growth in dealing with a variety of issues through her life. Once or twice I almost set it aside, but was drawn back to it. An interesting woman. The book appeals to a variety of readers: admirers of her political husband, anyone interested in WWII experiences, women trying to find balance in their lives, and those who just like a good biography.

At a book-signing Mrs. Bradley approves that, unlike her parents, today's young Germans are willing to confront the Nazi past. I fear that they may be putting too much of their attention on the past, while they ignore (or, worse yet, rationalize) the shouts of "Death to the Jews" coming from their precious Palestinians. Germany may outlaw _Mein Kampf_ and _The Protocols of the Elders of Zion_, but expressing one's solidarity with the Arabs who promote this kind of hatred is still quite acceptable. I wonder what Mrs. Bradley thinks of PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk - a young German-American who dismisses the Holocaust as no worse than Kentucky Fried Chicken -- and Hitler no worse than Colonel Sanders.

I can identify with Mrs. Bradley's feelings when as an adult she learned of the consequences of her countrymen's infatuation with National Socialism. As a Jew I felt a similar shame upon learning of _my_ grandparent generation's enthusiasm for _international_ socialism. ("Nazi" is short for Nazional Sozialist, so perhaps we should refer to the Internazional Sozialisten as "InterNazis.") The InterNazis made only limited inroads in America, but tens of millions were murdered in the Soviet gulags -- the initial model for Hitler's concentration camps. The death toll was even worse in China and Cambodia; and continues under Zimbabwe's Marxist leader.

Unfortunately, many lessons of the Holocaust have yet to be learned. For example, a half-dozen years before the Holocaust the Nazi government ordered all Jews to be registered with the police. The author's husband (presidential candidate Sen. Bill Bradley) -- in a similar spirit of "We have too many of their kind" -- advocated registering handgun owners. I was also disturbed by his eagerness to outlaw the very guns used by many Korean shop owners to escape the Los Angeles Krystallnacht of 1992. Hitler once remarked that if you tell a lie often enough, people will believe it -- and the gun control movement relies on that tactic heavily. At least with the Bradley's they succeeded -- much as Hitler was successful with the Germans of the 1930s.

I guess that's why history repeats itself.

considering the background of the author, the book is not as well written as I had hoped, but the contents are so interesting, and tell of such an interesting life that it more than made up for the sometimes awkward style. Life is not a bed of roses and relationships are complicated, and the author in candor and honesty discusses them. Her husband comes through as a good man whom we werelucky to have in the Senate.

Ernestine Schlant Bradley's memoir, The Way Home: A German Childhood, an American Life, is a personal document of the way, or road, she traveled and her changing perspectives as she lives her life. Having left her Bavarian home to settle in the US, Dr. Bradley shares many experiences with the million or more German speaking immigrants to the American continent in the postwar era. She left in April 1957 to explore the world as a hostess for Pan Am airlines and her very attractive picture from that time adorns the book's dust jacket. She then married and lived in Atlanta where her first daughter was born but soon began to take courses which led to a career as professor of comparative literature at New School University in New York. In1974, she married Bill Bradley, later the Senator from New Jersey. Ernestine clearly deserves credit as a survivor, not only of World War II and the hard post-war years, but also of an early divorce and breast cancer.

The Way Home is, however, more than a memoir; it is a detailed record of the author's continuing discovery of new views of the stations along her life's road. She creates lively images of the streets of Passau and the Danube River, her playground in her carefree early youth during World War II, and of her postwar years in bombed-out Ingolstadt. As she revisits these sites, the images get more detailed and personal. This approach can almost be compared to the way an artist gradually chisels his sculpture. We learn for example how a few hours in her grandfather's garden were often the only rest from a life of chores and learning because Ernestine became responsible for the household and her substantially younger siblings during her mother's frequent illnesses. As new perspectives reveal continually greater truths, this stylistic feature also reflects her personal maturation. In the process we see how family members influenced her and how she also came to view their roles in the hard events that made for the history of Germany. As she comments in her thoughtful way on that history, we find that her approach rarely lends itself to easy quotes about this difficult time. Late in life Ernestine also discovered her own somewhat complicated family story. The fact that her mother was at the time of her birth married to a man who was not her father briefly led to accusations of misrepresentation during Bill Bradley's campaign in the 1999/2000 presidential primary. Without this public exposure she might not have been led to these personal documents in the Passau archives.

By revisiting major stations on her personal road Bradley shows the reader how she, as we all do, grew in understanding, and, after all, that's what life is all about! If this "way" in the title gives the book structure, then changes for the word "home" give it depth. The reader will have to work a little when primary relationships are also frequently revisited. In the process, the meaning of the word "home" is freed from its connection to a place and stands increasingly for a condition of emotional wellbeing, an adjustment that immigrants can surely follow. An elderly aunt, Tante Betty, was her care giver in Passau and provided "home" for the young child. Her mother never succeeded in fulfilling this role and Ernestine admits that even beyond youthful rebellion the relationship remained strained through most of her life. However, she found her emotional home in her relationship to her two daughters and to her second husband, Rhodes Scholar, NBA star, and Senator Bill Bradley. Building their life together around two jobs and a daughter and suffering together through her cancer treatments, they consciously worked on giving each other an emotional home.

The Way Home was begun as a testament to her daughters and grandchildren. Readers will be grateful that it was also published, especially because it addresses the many issues around Germany's role in recent history in such a compelling way. Immigrants will find themselves empowered by Ernestine Bradley's honety to address those issues from the American perspective. All readers will find that this book is hard to put down. It is hoped that a translation will make it equally compelling for readers in Germany.
by Anne Marie Fuhrig, Ph.D., erstwhile Asst. Professor at MacMurray College, Jacksonville, IL.

During this past election, many people thought that Teresa Heinz Kerry would become the first foreign-born First Lady. In fact, there had been a chance in the 2000 election, when Senator Bill Bradley ran for the Democratic nomination for president. His wife, Ernestine Schlant Bradley, impressed many observers with her intelligence, energy, and passion, and it was a shame that more Americans did not get to know her before the Bradley campaign faded in the primaries. Now they have that opportunity in this memoir, which describes her life beginning in Nazi Germany and the war years, and taking her through her emigration to America, her decision to pursue an academic career, an unsuccessful marriage in Atlanta, a new life in New York, her second marriage to the Rhodes Scholar, NBA star, and Senator from New Jersey, and finally her struggle in the 1990s with breast cancer. It is a remarkably honest, candid, and revealing account of her life, painful at times in its introspection, but deeply moving in its emotions and understanding.
It was during the presidential campaign that Bradley was jolted into reexamining her past. An archivist from Passau, her German birthplace, put material on the town's web site questioning her background and family history. The material suggested she was a Hochstapler, someone presenting herself with a better pedigree than she was entitled to. Her father, the posting suggested, was not the air force officer she claimed, but a different man, a hairdresser in Passau. He was also a member of the Nazi party, and the implication was that Bradley sought to conceal this politically damaging fact. These assertions, Bradley notes, "upset me enough that I needed to go back to my roots, to gain access to documents not previously available, and to reconsider how I became who I think I am." What she discovered was a very complicated family history. Her mother had indeed become pregnant at eighteen with the man that Ernestine would later know as her father, but in order to avoid hurting his promising career, she ended up marrying a local man, "the hairdresser." He was the man listed on Ernestine's birth certificate as her father. In 1943, when Ernestine was eight years old, her mother finally divorced him and married Ernestine's real father, the air force officer, but she never had him legally adopt Ernestine. These facts proved painful to Bradley when she discovered them, especially as they bore on her relationship with her mother. Bradley's describes her mother as a woman who "did not know what to do with me, except possess and display me, and she mistook that for love," and this emotionally tangled relationship is a centerpiece of the book. As we follow Bradley's life - watching her care for her younger siblings during her mother's illnesses, seeking the education her mother didn't get, deciding to come to America - her mother remains a central element in her life. When she speaks of her mother's disappointment in her when she got a divorce and then didn't return to Germany, one senses the real anguish that this brought. But many readers will also fully understand when she writes that after her mother's death, " I was overcome with a kind of grief I had not known before," and that she felt her mother's absence and was no longer angry with her, leading Bradley to wonder "How could a lifelong grievance vanish so quickly and so undramatically?"
There is a wealth of insight and wisdom in this book, but many readers will find Bradley's continuing confrontation with Germany's past to be of particular interest. Obviously she herself was only a child during the Nazi period, but that does not stop her from acknowledging that "like so many Germans of my generation, I have been haunted by the question of how I, as an adult, would have behaved during the Nazi regime." Her realization of the burden of German history came only when she started living in America in the early 1960s - because, as she writes poignantly, "in Germany silence surrounded the Holocaust like an impenetrable wall." But once she learned of the Nazi crimes, the knowledge "descended never to leave me again." Although there were no"murderers in my family," she discusses honestly the pain and soul-searching that her awareness of Germany's crimes has cost her. Eventually she realized that simple acceptance was the only option, an acceptance that "this is part of my history; this is my heritage whether I like it or not." That acceptance has also spurred her to an impressive academic career confronting the issues of the Holocaust and its legacy in postwar German literature. But as important as Bradley's intellectual contribution has been, it is in her human reaction, the pain and sadness which this burden of history has inflicted and her moving encounters with people who suffered under the Nazis, that stand out in this account of her personal "coming to terms with the past."
Despite her public visibility and political role, Bradley's memoir has the feel of an intense and intimate conversation with an old and dear friend. It is a gripping story, complete with moments of moments of great joy and sadness. Her final words capture the spirit of this book: "defeat is never permanent, nor triumph everlasting. Only memory seals these moments in unending glory."

just love all the differnt dominant and subs its used differently in every story but its hot and the stories have meaning 2 them

A fun read in 3 short stories(about 100 pages each). Erotic fiction that delves well into the psychologic background of BDSM with understanding. Titillating stories but I felt they lacked character development found in novel length writings, so not as riveting for me as other titles of this genre that I have read.

So,we have three stories about BDSM lifestyle.The author's writing is quite good and rather erotic but what bothered me about this book is that the author always repeats herself.In every story we meet a female character with a bad childhood and that's the reason they wanna try the whole master-slave thing.(too much Freud,don't you agree?)And in every story they end up falling in love with their "masters".
The author could have been more creative and given her characters more dept than glamour and physical attraction.
Another thing is,it's always the women who choose to submit and men are the dominants.Did I miss anything,isn't that the eternal rule since the dawn of humanity?I think it would be more interesting if she could create a male chaacter who submits to a woman and not because of his childhood.
This book is a mediocre read and don't keep your expectations high.

I purchased this book after reading The Dark Garden by the same author, while I really enjoyed it, The Darker side of pleasure was even better, very deep into the world of BDSM, erotic yet dark, I couldn't put this down...3 short stories that hook you and leave you breathless--literally!

~~Minx

If you're in the mood for seductive stories with an edge, this book has it all: silky-smooth prose, well-crafted suspense and very hot sex scenes in abundance. But it offers even more to readers like me who are new to this genre. I was always a bit mystified by the allure of BDSM, but Eden Bradley's intelligent and insightful portrayals of both male and female characters helped me "get" why strong women would be drawn to this sort of experience and how power play can be a delightfully slippery--and profoundly romantic--game. I found "Love and Discipline" especially riveting; I just couldn't put it down until I was done! Bradley is a wonderful storyteller and I look forward to reading more of her work.

I found this book easy to read and have useful information about setting up Windows XP security.

'Essential Computer Security: Everyone's Guide to Email, Internet, and Wireless Security' is exactly what it says it is, a guide for admins and IT people to learn to implement better security practices in their everyday lives on the job. With 250+ pages of material, this is a standard Syngress book that you will no doubt be familiar with if you have read their stuff before. Filled with niche particulars that expect the reader to have a background with the subject matter, Syngress releases truly are no fluff, just stuff as they set their sites on the nerdspeak content and not a pretty package. If you want to read up on computer security and learn how to keep your corporate infrastructure safer and more secure, take a look at this release.

**** RECOMMENDED

One of the first things to know about this book is that it doesn't try to be a complete reference for computer security, and it keeps it focus very well. It doesn't try to be a computer security book for the top 5% of the technically inclined, either. Instead, it tries to be a computer security book for the masses and covers topics that they'll need to know to keep their computer safe. The book outline why this is important to the average user: your own data will be kept safe and your computer will be kept problem free, and your computer wont be a problem source for everyone else.

The book does a decent job of laying out what it will cover and mostly picks topics that matter most, require the least amount of extra effort to make it happen. The book isn't just for one situation, either, and it covers some home network setups which include wireless routers and such. Overall, it seems to have picked its territory well.

It covers this territory in an OK fashion, which is to say that it gives an adequate treatment to the important topics but leaves a few spots uncovered. I'm pleased that it covers some basic WinXP stuff, like how to secure your accounts and such.

The chapter on passwords was OK, and about what I expected. Obviously these are important, as bots that perform brute force attacks to get in are as popular as ever. The chapter on patching is OK, but seems incomplete. It should have done a better job of covering Windows Update a little more thoroughly (it felt like it stopped short of this important feature) and a bit more on how to use built-in vendor supplied "I have an update available" stuff that is increasingly popular.

Part II is what's probably unique about this book, and gives some of the best meat around for this level of a book. It covers home networking safety (ie keeping the neighbor kid from using your WIFI and keeping your computers safe and usable behind a DSL firewall), email security (both your account credentials and attachment security), and spyware, adware, and general web-browser security. I would have liked to have seen the book advocate (with great reasons) Firefox over IE and Windows Defender in addition to AdAware and Hijack This.

Part 3 is about maintenance and backups, and it's decent. It slips into Linux advocacy in Chapter 12, which we could have done without.

The appendices are good, well reasoned and well executed. The case study and the basics covered complement the book well.

Overall the book does a decent job, and targets the kind of person who would like to know enough to participate in some popular forums and contribute, so they have some technical skills that they're growing. It wont do so well with people who are not very technically inclined, and that's not unsurprising.

Driving on the information highway, users face threats ranging from worms to scams. The Essential Computer Security: Everyone's Guide to Email, Internet, and Wireless Security can serve as the owner's manual for anyone serious about ensuring the security of their computer and the data contained therein. Many victims of identity theft could undoubtedly have protected themselves had they followed the basic rules outlined in the book.

Essential Computer Security does not attempt to be an encyclopedic work covering the esoteric realms of computer security. Rather, author Tony Bradley takes a "just the facts" approach and covers the essentials, focusing on the two applications average consumers use most: e-mail and the Internet.

In 12 lucid, easy-to-read chapters, Bradley covers all of the necessary topics end-users need to understand, from the basics of Microsoft Windows security to passwords, patching, malware, wireless, e-mail security, and more.

The text does have a technical angle for readers who want that level of detail.

Too few IT security books are written for the typical user. This work lives up to its title and fills an important need.

When Tony asked me to write the foreword for this book, I considered it an great honor. We both share the strong belief that knowledge is a more powerful tool than any firewall, antivirus program or intrusion detection system could ever hope to be. That said, not all of us have the luxury of security guru at our fingertips to show us the ropes. This means that you sometimes need to take it upon yourself to understand and learn what needs to be done to keep your computer and network safe and secure. That is what this book was engineered to do, without any confusing jargon or talking down to the reader. Get it and read it and help make the Internet a more secure and safer place for all of us to enjoy.

Douglas Schweitzer, Sc.D.