Brian Books

Chinese philosphy is so pragmatic, always useful. These book makes easy to understand many important fact present in life. Sadly, the other books of this series aren't available. I hope they got reprinted. If you can't get one copy of this book, you'll see that some things change when we leave our static point of view. Great Book.

I read out of either this or Zen Speaks: Shouts of Nothingness almost every night for my daughter...although I think I'm really reading it more for myself. One-three page cartoons of zen buddhism scriptures translated all contain great little doses of morality and keep one from taking one's self too seriously.

What a wonderful book. It is such an easy read. The illustrations are great and the stories convey profound wisdom in an entertaining fashion. The humor is gentle. One will grow in wisdom without even realizing it by reading this book. What a gem.

It's not every day you see a book on any Eastern philosophy that is easily accessible by pretty much anybody who can read. With /Zhuangzi Speaks/, Tsai Chih Chung has given us a great gift. I must admit that I initially had low expectations for a cartoon version of Chuang-Tzu's writings. After having read through it, however, I say with confidence that this is truly a wonderful book that makes the sometimes puzzling Taoist principles much easier to understand.

/Zhuangzi Speaks/ is definitely worth a read by fledgling and long-time Taoists alike, as well as their loved ones (who may not understand much about the Tao), and anyone else who is even the least bit curious about Chuang-Tzu and his ideas.

Now you can enjoy the essence, wit and wisdom of Chuangzi brought to life through cartoons. Near the edge of each page, you'll also find the story written in Chinese characters.

Through these popular and illustrated stories, you'll get a taste of "listening to the music", living spontaneously, free from social encumbrances, free from the strict rules of conduct of Confucianism - in harmony with the Tao, surrendering to the moment and enjoying whatever situation presents itself.

This lovely book presents the wisdom of Chuanzi through about 78 enlightening metaphorical stories.

I have shelves filled with computer "How To" type books and in the past have stayed away from the "Dummies" series thinking them to be a bit too simplified. However, recently I needed to get up to speed with Microsoft's Access, specifically in order to prepare reports. So I bought Access Forms & Reports for Dummies by Brian Underdahl. I found this book to be a refreshing diversion from the normally dry and sometimes obtuse computer books of the past. Mr. Underdahl has a colloquial writing style which is not only entertaining but highly informative. Within a very short period of time I found myself successfully creating Forms and Reports which made my work go much smoother. I highly recommend this book to anyone who needs to understand Access and quickly create Forms and Reports.

Access is, of course, a database program. Unlike many of the big database programs, it is closely integrated with a quite sophisticated front end package to enable the creation of easy to use input forms and quite good looking reports to take the data stored in the database and present it to the outside world in a clear and useful format.

A database is useless unless you have a way to put data into and take it out of the database. This book mostly covers the setting up of input forms and output reports. It obviously won't be your only Access book, because you'll need something to describe how to set up a database. So this is a specialty book, that does an excellent job of covering this important aspect.

Selecting data out of the database to then present is sometimes a problem. Most beginning books just use the Access QBE to produce the data. Often this is enough, but this book goes just a bit into SQL that allows you to do so much more. While this is not a book on SQL, this is a good start to give you enough information to know if this is a direction you need to go.

All in all, this is a very useful book to enable you to get more utility ot of an Access database.

First, it is important to realize what this book is not. It is not a complete Access reference book. It will not teach you database theory and all aspects of data normalization. It does not cover advanced techniques such as VBA programming, the ADO object model or using the Windows API.

So what do you get from this book? A fantastic introduction to developing forms, reports and queries. In the tradition of the Dummies series, the author gently guides the novice towards building expertise in this narrow but all important aspect of Microsoft Access. With a conversational style, each step in creating a report, form or query is clearly explained. Also, the reasons for creating a report or form, and the differences between the two are presented. Although the title doesn't mention queries, because they are integral to producing reports and forms, several chapters deal with queries. Finally, two chapters discuss enhancing queries with SQL and troubleshooting those queries when things go wrong.

In summary, by spending a few days with the author, via this book, a beginning Access programmer can quickly become adept at designing forms and generating reports.

I use Access daily and thought I knew it pretty well. But this book really showed me a lot of new tricks I couldn't find anywhere else. This is by far the most useful book on Access I've found!

I bought a bunch of Access books, but this one is by far the most helpful one yet. It shows me how to do a lot of things I've wanted to do, but simply couldn't figure out on my own (or from any of those other books). You really need to add this one to your collection!

This is a definite "can't put down" book. I'm very impressed with the range of emotions captured through the story. I laughed, I cried, I felt joy, I felt sadness.. I remembered what it was like to be a teenager. This book will help parents understand what their children are going through because it will bring back memories of that very difficult age.
This book also provides an excellent concept of lifetime friendship. It teaches one to look at the true qualities of someone, not just the outside appearance. It teaches one not to judge to quickly.
I would highly recommend this book.
I can't wait for Brian M Gelinas to publish another book!

American Odyssey is a well written story. The depth of the characters will make you feel as if you really know these kids. The book will capture your attention from the first word to the last.

The author is able to bring out of the reader true and raw emotions for the characters. I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

this is a great novel that I would highly suggest to read. They say you can't judge a book by its cover??? This is movie material from cover to cover.

AMERICAN ODYSSEY, the first novel by newspaper journalist Brian M. Gelinas, is a "road" novel as the title suggests, a gritty tale of teen fugitives.

Hunter and Wade, both seventeen, run away to avoid a looming court date while Billy comes along partly out of hero worship and partly out of boredom. The trio plans to rob and steal their way across America, their final destination being South Dakota. The stifling confines of a small New England town, where one's future is either a dead-end job or a life of crime, spur the boys to jump a train, arming themselves with a pistol and several knives.

But Hunter is preoccupied by his past; the long road trip allows him time to think and write in his journal. Wade turns out to be a criminal without a conscience, just as Hunter was warned before they left. And Billy's arrested development leaves him unable to cope with the disappointments and dangerous twists during their illicit journey. Blue, a girl runaway who sees something innocent and trustworthy in Hunter and Billy, never warms to Wade, which creates a schism between her male companions. The four of them continue their trek westward until they finally reach the Indian reservations.

Secrets pose a recurring motif in the novel, their power to compel one to act and their power to unravel the best-laid plans. Hunter's cousin holds a secret that could have prevented Hunter from hating his hometown rival, a hatred that leads to his trouble with the police. Billy's secret goodbye note to his grandmother makes the boys known fugitives before they get far on their journey. And Wade's secret regarding their first robbery leads to the downfall of the runaways. But even an innocuous secret, like Hunter and Blue's affair, has devastating repercussions in this fast-paced thriller.

AMERICAN ODYSSEY is a cautionary tale with a dire warning about avoiding problems or keeping secrets. Pain in life is unavoidable. It can be delayed but not permanently avoided. Secrets may prevent immediate confrontations or hard feelings -- but secrets resurface. Problems avoided come full circle, often in more unmanageable shapes and forms. While the narrator asks for compassion for troubled youth at the novel's end, it is the unstated message of this story that is the most powerful: avoiding consequences and responsibility can be more damaging in the long run than the immediate pain of facing up to bad choices.

This is a powerful story, extremely well-written, with a plot that has no holes or implausibility. It provides a sense of place recognizable from other New England writers, such as Stephen King and Robert Cormier, albeit with lighter overtones. There is redemption in AMERICAN ODYSSEY, but it is costly, requiring the reader to experience Hunter's growth pains as he faces issues he sought to avoid by running away in the first place.

A must-read. Five stars!

Reviewed by: Mark Frye, author and reviewer

Who wouldn't want to hop a train, meet their soulmate and end up in a faraway place that seems like heaven? Mr. Gelinas has the ability to take his readers along for the ride -- joining four teen runaways -- from a small Massachusetts town to the Black Hills of South Dakota. The dialogue is incredible, the description is amazing, and you'll always be wondering what's around the next corner. Join Hunter, Wade, Billy and Blue for an adventure that you won't ever want to end.

- The authors of the early chapters talk to you as if you're in highschool.
- Since most chapters are written by different authors, most material is redundant.
- Instead of getting to the point, they try to soften the material with anecdotes and jokes that are mostly immaterial and detract from the information I seek.
- Lists a whole bunch of contracts that are apparently required for a startup, then suggest talking to a lawyer, such as Buy/Sell char Contact. Then why did I buy this book?

+ Great reference for taxing, IP, and some contracts.

Skip all the other chapters and just look at taxing, Intellectual Property stuff, and contracts. That's where the value of the book is.

For anyone interested in understanding the business of video game development this book should be on the top of your list of things to read first. Written for the person trying to get into game development or the person in game development looking to start out on their own. It combines both the business and the legal fundamentals that you need to know to get started in video game development. Includes analysis of publishing agreements and EULA's that are extremely helpful to any game developer. Also includes things you need to know to protect your intellectual property rights and what kinds of things in video games can be protected. The book is not overly complicated and in fact it is written to be easy and fun to read. The authors are all experts in the fields of business and law of video games and you can tell they had a good time writing this book. One of the most interesting chapters includes helpful suggestions from leaders in the video game industry on things that they wish they would have known starting out as game developers. Overall this book is a must for game developers and fun reading for anyone that is interested in understanding the business of games.

This book was invaluable to me in learning about doing business in the video game industry and the concerns that a game development team will face.

While many books which discuss the video game industry will waver in their accuracy on any given subtopic due to the limited expertise of the speaker, this volume avoids that problem by having each chapter written by a different author, each with particular knowledge and experience with their chapter's subject. The Primer is written by more than a dozen experts, including game developers, business persons and law professors, each talking in plain English about the problems and solutions to difficulties and issues that will arise over the course of developing a game and starting a development company.

As a student, I have read a lot of textbooks in the last few years and being interested in the game industry I regularly read magazines and articles on game development. This book is neither of those. It is informative and helpful without being long-winded or wordy, serious in its expertise and insight but fun in its approach and writing. In short, it is the type of reading you will enjoy doing while learning the things you want and need to know about business and legal issues which arise in game development.

This is an enormously helpful book. It is one of the best intellectual property law and game development book on the market that I've read. It is an enjoyable as well as practical text.

Superb book. Enormously Practical text. The best intellectual property law and game development book on the market. A very healthy read. may change your whole perspective on business, games and life.

Classical, jazz, and pop singer Eileen Farrell comes across as a down-to-earth, generous, happy, and satisfied person in this book. What's not to like?

Like another reviewer I found the biography too short. Surely Miss Farrell could divulge with her writer's help more anecdotes. And SURELY Sony/CBS could re-release more of her albums, particulary the Puccini Arias. Thank God there are historical recordings available, for which, unfortunately, Miss Farrell doesn't get royalties. I would happily send her a check anytime.

Do not confuse this witty, sparkling memoir with the stilted, egocentric ("I" this and "I" that) memoirs you may have encountered. Farrell, one of the Met's most underused artists - yet one of its greatest, writes with charm and style that enthrall the reader making us wish she had easily written a book twice as long. Brava! Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys a great read and "meeting" a great lady.

Thank you, Eileen Farrell, for a wonderful career and for your candor in telling your very personal and inspiring story. I couldn't put the book down! As a professional singer myself, I found your experiences from your innocence at the first audition to your regular radio show moving and encouraging. Your book is as honest and refreshing as your performances and a must-read for even those with no interest in opera.

Eileen Farrell is one of the most gifted and celebrated American singers of the twentieth century. She is both a classically trained dramatic soprano and a talented songstress of pop songs and the blues. Can't Help Singing: The Life Of Eileen Farrell is a superbly crafted memoir in which she shares candid reminiscences about her professional career and her personal life. With humor and affection she surveys her New England childhood, her sudden success at the age of twenty starring in her own CBS radio show, dubbing for Eleanor Parker in the MGM movie "Interrupted Melody", her many guest appearances on television, and her operatic work, including an historic debut at the Metropolitan Opera in Alceste in 1960. Eileen also recollects her sometimes troubled marriage of forty years to New York police officer Robert Reagan and her frustrating tenure as a faculty member at Indiana University. In this wonderful memoir we meet the famous figures of music who were her contemporaries, fellow performers, and associates from Leonard Bernstein to Maria Callas, from Ethel Merman to Carol Burnett. Can't Help Singing is a marvelous biography that will hold great interest and appeal for her many fans and for students of 20th Century American music.

As a Special Education teacher, this is just the book that I have been waiting for. "Colin Gets A Chance" helps us to open the lines of communication between regular education students, children with disabilities and the professionals who work with them. I found that this book was a great "lead in" to conversations with regular education students to make a better inclusion experience for all. Whether it be on the recess yard, teams, special events in or out of the school, or being in classes together, this book allows us to talk freely with children about this very unique subject. This book is a dream come true! Brian: Thank you for writing such a wonderful story and the illustrations are amazing, just like the kids who did them!

This author dives into a very personal experience and it translates well in the book. The publication is very creative using illustrations provided by other children with Down Syndrome. My kids loved it! I look forward to many more books written by this outstanding author.

We read this book as a girl scout troop. The girls were cheering Colin's name, and commenting on each and every illustration. It is a lovely story where not only is Colin the hero but so are his friends. It is a great book to demonstrate doing the right thing for a friend.

This book, written by a father of a school age boy with Down Syndrome, is a great way to inspire student discussions about what they can do to open the door for others. A very positive and moving story, for the kids and illustrated by the kids! GO COLIN!!!!

This book is wonderful for children of all ages to teach them to be kind and supportive of ALL children, and to understand those who have special needs. The book is inspirational not only in the story itself, but the pictures which are created by children with Down Syndrome. I will read this story to my neices and nephews and hope it brings them an understanding of children with Down Syndrome - but also to instill the importance of kindness towards children who may be different than them at school and on the playground. We need more books such as this at home and in schools.

I am only a third of the way through the book and it has been very informative and easy to understand. I have never been able to grasp Crystal until I started reading this book. If you want to save yourself $1000 for training, buy this book.

I've only been working with Crystal for a few weeks but am already putting together some pretty decent reports. I could not have done it without this book. After such a short amount of time my copy is somewhat dog-eared and filled with yellow post it notes for quick reference to the things I need. It is open at my desk whenever I work with Crystal.

If you are a Crystal novice this book provides an excellent foundation for Crystal Reports. If you are an intermediate/advanced user there is plenty here for you as well. I especially like the financial twist the report provides since most of my reports are payroll, general ledger and accounts payable/receivable related.

The discussion forum associated with the book is also an excellent resource. I was "stuck" on a couple issues and was helped by both the author and other users on the forum.

Bischof's book is a complete, well-researched reference that quickly arms a novice Crystal Reports user with the techniques necessary to create sound, well-formatted financial (and other) reports. The appendix on Balance Statements and Income Statemens is a fabulous jump-start for those who must get up to speed quickly! If Crystal Reports is your platform for information delivery, this book belongs in your library.

The very clearly written style, REAL WORLD EXAMPLES!!!, and great technical content make this book a must have for Crystal Reports Development.

5 Stars

This is my first crystal report book and i can say this is the best crystal report book ever i found. Every chapters has a lot of Tutorials and Tips.

A must read for anyone even remotely interested in Christian history. Brian Griffith develops the ongoing struggle between the forces that try to dominate church life and those that try to unify or make peace with diverse groups within the church. And he does this over the entire time span of Christian history. But don't think of it as a stuffy history book. Rather, it a dramatic study of the people involved and the times in which they lived. Once you pick the book up, it is hard to put it down. I think that anyone who reads this book will get an expanded view of Christianity and it's interplay with the social forces in the larger world. It is a masterful presentation and should have wide appeal within other great religous traditions.

As a United Church minister both interested in biblical scholarship and church history and also very concerned with nurturing genuine Christian community today, I have found Brian Griffith's book, Different Visions of Love, to be very interesting and helpful.


Griffith pulls together information from biblical and historical research to show that the very early church understood that Jesus' teaching about love leads to partnership relationships rather than relationships of domination and subjection.
Griffith book shows not only how this understanding was undermined early on as the church became institutionalized, but also how Jesus' understanding of love remained extant among many Christians and resurfaced from time to time.


Griffith, in his book, is particularly interesting and helpful in the way he uses historical examples to make his point. I have been delighted to find examples and other materials in his books that I can use in my sermons.


I recommend his book as useful to Christian churches, particularly to women in leadership positions.

Describing how Christianity changed over time, Griffith always includes the experience and values of women. He shows the contributions of female leaders and how women have often challenged the church. This history of the religion shows how important women have been from the beginning. It shows periods of great suffering for women, but also great progress towards a real partnership of both sexes.

Many religious people think their way of understanding is the only way to get close to God. They never think people should have freedom in accepting the religion in their own way. But Griffith goes through history, and shows how some of these ideas come from traditions of various cultures rather than from prophets and saints, and these "dominator traditions" mixed with religion. In general I can say Griffith respects different approaches for understanding religion. He thinks different kinds of religious people are learning to respect each other and work together. He criticizes a lot of inhuman things in the past, but mostly the book is very hopeful.

A book of Christian history that's very helpful to Muslims as well

As a Muslim, I found this book very helpful. We have a similar struggle in our history between different versions of our faith. We have our own long record of dominator Muslims, and also Muslims who want real partnership or equality. This book shows how Christians have made choices between those different moral standards, and what resulted from those choices. These are the kinds of choices Muslims face as well, and I would like to see somebody write a book like this for Islam. ]

I believe that this book should be required reading for anyone who is concerned about the debilitating trends in our society: students shooting their classmates, breakdowns in family relationships, high divorce rates, and out-of-wedlock childbirths. The author presents significant evidence to show that these may all be symptomatic of adult America's obsession with work outside of the home, and subsequently leaving young America to try and invent its own culture and morality.

Recent studies have shown that today's youth suffer from a far higher rate of mental illness than those who grew up just a couple of generations ago. Social disconnectedness and a sense of impending doom have driven many of our youth toward immediate gratification and away from a long-term interest in education and work. At the same time, technological change and the knowledge explosion makes a successful vocation even harder to attain. This is especially true among young men, whose participation rates in postsecondary education, in the electoral process, and in civic activities are at an all-time low and declining rapidly.

Although Robertson's book is deep and well documented, it is very readable. He is at his best in the chapter where he discusses the contrast between the work of a full-time mother with that of a "career woman." Homemaking, which was considered the ideal by feminists as recently as the middle of the twentieth century, is now looked upon as demeaning and destructive of self-esteem, while a "career" outside of the home is viewed as something highly desirable and worthy of achievement. "The work of raising children requires constant hidden sacrifice, unacknowledged and unrewarded by society, often unacknowledged and unrewarded by one's own family-particularly the children themselves. ... A society that measures success exclusively in terms of material or professional attainment is unlikely to accord much status to the hidden work of the mother in the home."

Especially upsetting to those who believe that the traditional family is the foundation of civil society is the palette of economic incentives that government and business offer to the mother who chooses to select "professional" childcare. Childcare credits, tax-exempt childcare flexible spending accounts, and higher IRA savings limits abound for the two-earner family, while the mother who elects to raise her own children receives no benefits in exchange for sacrificing a dual income and striving to make ends meet on a single income.

Robertson offers criticism for Republicans and Democrats alike. Neither major political party has found a way to support the concept of the traditional family, despite their continual touting of "family values" and "family-friendly legislation" that further drives wedges between mothers and their children. Instead of discouraging divorce and/or out-of-wedlock childbearing, welfare policies have forced mothers to accept out-of-the-home childcare so that they can go to work full time.

"There's No Place Like Work" offers a well documented examination of current destructive trends in family and workplace dynamics. It is certain to stimulate provocative discussion, and I hope it will receive the wide readership it deserves.

I'm a 20 year-old highly motivated student at a prestigious university. My entire life I've worked diligently so I could have a successful career. However, after I began reading this book, my thinking has been turned on its head. Now I can see that I've been motivated by all the wrong things: ego, self-aggrandizement, money, and status. This book has helped me understand all that motherhood used to be and could be. It is not a banal existence; there are beautiful possibilites open to the imaginitive mind. Our country was founded on the Protestant ethic that the most noble thing one could do is to be selfless, to give everything you have to your children and your family. My words are like gravel in the mouth compared to Robertson's eloquence. I wish I could capture the beauty of his words here. Please, read this book. It changes everything.

The West is struggling with the related issues of women in the workforce, childcare, maternity leave, and family breakdown. The usual wisdom is to say that we just need to try harder to balance work commitments with family responsibilities. But Brian Robertson, a writer living in Washington DC, believes the answers lie elsewhere.

Indeed, from a historical perspective, the current crisis is really an anomaly. The modern feminist movement of the 60s taught that the only good woman is a career woman, and that homemaking and motherhood were to be despised and fled from. But interestingly, the women�s movement prior to that fought for the right of a mother to stay at home with her young children, and not be conscripted into the paid workplace.

Thus the struggle for those in the earlier years of the women�s movement was to protect women from the encroachment of market forces, and to prevent them from being forced into career at the expense of their families. Motherhood and homemaking, in other words, were seen as honorable and valuable ends in themselves.

But with the late 60s and onwards, the new wave of feminists took a totally different line: only in the paid workforce can a woman find meaning, freedom and dignity. Thus the vitriolic attack on mothers and the family. Betty Friedan therefore could call the home a "comfortable concentration camp" while Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown could label a mother and housewife as "a parasite, a dependent, a scrounger, a sponger � a bum".

A woman�s freedom, said these feminists, meant that a woman should and could be independent both in the economic and the reproductive realms. Women just do not need men, and are better off without them. Establishing a career and gaining financial independence is the first goal of the modern woman. And millions of Western women bought this line of thought.

Of course now the inherent contradictions are coming all too clear. Women who were told that they could have it all are now fining that they have very little. They may have a good job, but they have no husband or boyfriend, no children and no family. And many today are deeply regretful of this fact.

But it is not just women who have suffered at the hands of feminist orthodoxy. Children have been the big losers. Millions of children today are being raised by strangers. Yet all the social science research shows that children desperately need their mums and dads. No day care system can ever compete with the love and attention of a mother and a father.

Yet as Robertson documents, while the social research on all this is quite clear, very few are willing to promote the findings, for fear of incurring the wrath of feminists and of making working mums feel guilty. So although the research is clear, that attachment is important for infants and mother-child bonding is crucial, millions of mothers are ignoring the evidence, and their maternal instincts, and are abandoning their children in droves.

The harmful effects of extended periods of time for young children in day care are well documented in this book. Even child care workers admit that they would not dare to leave their own children in day care. Yet many mothers have been so indoctrinated into believing that their needs and desires must come first, that they are offering their children second best.

And seeking to alleviate the problems by better day care, more workplace flexibility, or seeking to obtain an unobtainable balance between work and family just is not sufficient. And it is not just short-sighted governments offering these inadequate solutions. The corporate world in effect has bought the feminist myth as well that women can have it all. But the truth is, they can�t have it all, at least not at the same time. Thus more corporate day care centres will not solve the bigger problems.

Indeed, the corporations are shooting themselves in the foot here. The really productive worker is the worker who has a happy and satisfying home life. But the corporate world, even with generous paid maternity leave policies, cannot stop the hemorrhaging of the family. Maternal deprivation is harmful to children, and unhappy children make for unhappy families, and unhappy families result in poor workers.

Governments also lose, as they seek to press women into the paid workplace, and do not deal with the root causes as to why so many families are forced to have two incomes. By bribing mums into the paid work place, whether by child care subsidies or other financial incentives, the growing problem of falling fertility rates, for example, will only increase. Less people mean less taxable income, and the inability to pay for expensive social welfare programs.

Thus both governments and businesses need to radically rethink what family-friendly workplaces actually mean. Robertson concludes by proposing some radical measures to put the interests of families first. These are predicated on the principle that human societies need the traditional family structure with a mother as the principal caregiver. Marriage and family are non-negotiable first principles. If that is accepted, then the following steps can be explored:

-Treat families as a unit in the tax code
-End "no-fault" divorce
-Replace the current welfare system with one that does not encourage illegitimacy and undermine intact families
-Pare back affirmative action legislation and programs
-Give all parents, not just those in the paid work place, child care credits or tax breaks.

These and other proposals, will help to ensure that real family-friendly policies are pursued. Yet Robertson knows that legal and economic change alone is not enough. The much harder cultural element needs to be addressed. But we have to start somewhere. And this volume is a good beginning point.

...This book is a wonderful distillation of Brian's views on the workplace, political and social movements and most interestingly his work here is a roadmap for the analytical process he undergoes to arrive at his conclusions.

Brian's book is an outstanding example of constructive critical thinking...one feels envigorated, enlightened, and most importantly tested and forced to confront deeply held truths and defend those ideas within that are found lacking.

It is a book to be proud of and I enjoyed it, unreservedly.

Agree with him or not, give him a chance to make his case in this book which addresses the foundation of a polite society, family.

Robertson shows how the best care is maternal care and why society is in denial of this fact. I found this book very informative and enlightening, and has forever changed the way I look at alternative child care and the media, whose refusal to tell the truth about parenting is causing the millions of children to be neglected.

There's such a lacking in books like this - smart but still sexy, funny sometimes yet deadly serious others, erotic and sensual from start to finish. Mostly deep and meaningful stories and poems, really just beautifully done.

I think that what I most enjoy about the "From Porn to Poetry" books, as well as CleanSheets.com, the magazine they originate from, is that you can say something like "sexy, classy, hot, wild, and true" and be accurate in your description. The editor's name, Susannah Indigo, represents authenticity in writing to me, and all of her projects that I've read have been a cut above ordinary erotica. The mix of material in this book ranges from the down and dirtiest stories to elegant, sexual poems, and there's nowhere else you can read that kind of pleasurable mix. The subtitle is "Clean Sheets Celebrates the Erotic Mind," and that's how it felt to me after reading the book - like my "erotic mind" had been thoroughly and joyously "celebrated," honored, turned-on, and was raring to go.

Nothing in the book resembles cheap "Penthouse" stories; stunning stories by writers like Kim Addonizio, Maggie Gray, Mike Kimera, Greg Wharton, and Susannah Indigo herself simply leave you begging for more. I can't recommend these books enough to anyone interested in erotica; I've gifted friends with them and they all agree. They wonder, in fact, where I found them, since there's nothing in big bookstores done as well as this. Thank heavens for the Web and the ability for small book publishers to put this cornucopia of erotica out there for us!

There are some really good stories in this book, and the rest is such an interesting variety that I highly recommend all of it.

I love the mixture of fiction and non-fiction and poetry in this book. All of it is sexy, interesting, fresh and new. Highly recommended, and a great gift for a love to get them talking about what they like.

I agree that there should be more books like this, always full of great writing, huge variety, covering the entire scope of our dirty and sexy minds, without being Penthouse-y/girlie magazine. Smart writing, sexy, with emotional depth, and hot. Excellent book.