Bryan Books

Rich's life was like my life, and finding someone who was like me, a ragamuffin, was an indescribable comfort on a lonely path from helpless addiction to freedom. Note: I am still on that path today. One day I will be able to thank Rich in person for what a gift his life was to so many of us. This book is a testament to that life. It is a treasure.

Being a long time Rich Mullins fan, I wanted anything and everything Rich Mullins I could get my hands on. This book, "An Arrow", by James Bryan Smith, gave me a whole side of Rich Mullins I never knew. But even more importantly than the man himself, this book points to a deeper walk with Jesus, and the struggles involved in obtaining that walk. This book is so inspirational. I've read it twice, and am now reading it a third time. I bought an extra copy to give away.

I was not able to put down the book until I finished it.

The reading I'd done on Rich Mullins previously taught me that he was an incredible person, but the book confirmed his devotion to Jesus Christ as well as his struggles to live faithfully. I was encouraged, amused, saddened, yet most of all inspired to keep contending for the faith.

The author's friendship with Rich Mullins came through - I only wish that it went into more detail and told me more.

I loaned the book to a friend, also a fan of Rich Mullins, and she said that it encouraged her greatly.

i highly recommend it to anyone whether your a fan of rich mullins music or just a christian who longs to have a deeper walk with God. Great book, inspiring, not shallow, deep, thought provoking, convicting. trust me if you ever buy a book buy this one. . you wont regret it.

The Book Arrow Pointing to Heaven is the most inspiring book I have ever read. I could not help but write "Amen," "Praise the Lord," "I need to read this again" or some other comment in the margins as I read the book. Having known Rich Mullins briefly early in his musical career, I knew he was someone different, someone closer to God than I could imagine, yet I had no idea just how close to the Awesome God he really was. This book, so well written by Smith, is a must for anyone that believes in God. It will take you to really knowing God in much the same way as Rich Mullins knew HIM - intimately. Perfect gift for graduation presents. I have given several with notes made in the margins of the gift books. Thank you for having such an all-inspiring-book! It is a MUST for persons seeking a better relationship with God.

This was the first book that I read from the series, and it drew me in like nothing else I'd ever read before. The characters are captivating, especially Bonnie, who I instantly fell in love with. The Candlestone opened up a door for me to enjoy a series that quickly became my favorite, and not only that, it led me to Bryan Davis' fan forum where I made lifelong friends, and was able to meet the man himself. Through my friendship with Bryan Davis I have learned tons about life, and God, and am eternally grateful for his passion and his obedience to God.

The Candlestone is an excellent sequel to Raising Dragons! You must read it... it's filled with adventure as the series continues.

A book of wonder and excitement. This is a book that will take you deep into faith and love. Enjoy a captivating storyline and characters that are thriling. Step into a world where dragons and knights come to life. See a battle against a blood thirsty knight and help turn the tide.

Let's face it, being able to top an already amazing book is hard to do, but Bryan Davis has done it here! More action, more suspense, more stuff for techno-geeks (like me!), and more truths that will challenge what you believe. Learn more about your favorite characters from Raising Dragons (Dragons in Our Midst 1) and walk away ready for more.

I really loved this book. It was really funny when Sir Barlow and all the knights were playing video games and eating pizza.

I bought this book to help me practice setting the exposure manually. It has beautiful and inspiring images that help motivate.

I was originally going to buy "Understanding Exposure", but decided that since I am a photography student and I actually understand exposure that, that might not be the greatest thing to buy. I am super glad I bought this one "Understanding Shutter Speed". I was flipping through the book and what caught my eye was the pictures, and the in depth explanations on how he achieved his results. The book is a fast, easy read and I recommend it for beginners or photography students like me.

Not technically brillant at digital photography, I purchased Bryan Pettersons book Understanding Shutter Speed in the hope that it would enlighten somewhat so I could go out and take reasonable photos. I read it and then went and purchased Bryan's other book "Understanding Exposure".

Both these books are absolutely brilliant (unless you are already a pro photograher - and even then, you would probably still learn something). Petterson is an excellent photograher and he has included many of these photos in his book to ilustrate points and compliment the text.
The books are very well presented, are extreamly easy to read and the book is printed on very high quality paper.

If you are dispointed with this book (and also Understanding Exposure - which compliment each other), then you should really take up painting.

Can't recommend highly enough

The author is really good at taking one aspect of photography, such as exposure or the use of shutter speeds, and explaining it within the broader context of taking good pictures. If you want to learn how to perfect your use of long exposures, very short exposures, and everything in between, this book will do the job. There is a reason why this author is a mega-best-seller. Buy this book and learn for yourself.

I look through a lot of photography "how-to" books when I'm in Barnes and Noble or Borders and this one caught my eye. It is visually stunning, full of beautiful images, shot by the author himself.

Panning, zooming, low light, filters, "implying motion", shooting slow and deliberately blurry images...you will read about a wealth of choices that can help a photographer grow creatively. Peterson shows how blur can be just valid a choice as sharp in making an astounding photo.

There are some fun experiments in this book, such as creating "rain" with a sprinkler, and attaching a camera to a shopping cart to capture a child rolling through a grocery store aisle. The inventiveness found in the book makes it fun.

I would definitely recommend this book to both beginners and more advanced photographers.

This is a great book to read whenever you're going through a tough time. The themes of contentment and finding a light in the dark place run rampant throughout this book, from beginning to end. Billy learns how to know the tools of the enemy, and how to find that one spark of light when all seems dark. And Bonnie learns how to be content. How you ask? Well, you will just have to read it to find out. The journey you start when you read Raising Dragons, continues in Circles of Seven.

The book starts off great, and gets into the action right away. Billy is in a mansion in England and will be going to see the circle of knights, but is attacked in the middle of the night. There's a small battle which injures the Professor, so Billy is the one to drive them to a mountain to meet up with fellow dragons Clefspeare and Hartanna who are joined by Bonnie. Once the group of three are close to land, Hartanna stays behind to survey the coast while Clefspeare and Bonnie fly ahead to join Billy and Prof. As the two finally land, Clefspeare has been taken captive by a memeber of an evil sorcoress' army. The next day, Billy, Bonnie, and the Professor proceed as scheduled to Sir Patrick's house. There, they are faced with an option of entering a different world and proceeding through seven circles to free captives. Each decide to enter, but neither realize just how challenging it will going be. Putting their own lives at risk, the duo journey through the seven different worlds and find out quickly that it will be much harder than anything they have endured before.
This book was very good, mixed with instant action that was spread throughout the entire story and Bryan's drawing you deep into the book. I would definately recommend this book to everyone to read, but the last two chapters were a disappointment for me. I didn't think that they were well explained and were extremely confusing.

The amazing series continues with Circles of Seven!! This is my favorite book in the Dragons in our Midst series. It's action packed as the characters journey through the seven circles.

A story of love, sacrifice, faith and forgiveness that will keep you reading all night long. An adventure that takes you through places you never thought you could go. This is a must read book an can not be turned down. Fight through another world of devils and discover the truth of Excalibur.

How does he do it? Not only were the first two books instant favorites, but the third one became my favorite in the series! More deep storylines, more great characters, more excitement, more suspense, etc. I'm officially hooked on these, and now I get an adrenaline rush when I start a new book by Bryan Davis.

Popular scholarship at its best: engaging, entertaining, and very informative. Magee systematically illuminates some of the most elusive and misunderstood aspects of Wagner's life, work and influences, with graceful clarity. He summarizes and recapitulates just enough so as to ensure that each idea is remembered and understood in light of what proceeded. A broad scope of complex topics are made remarkably easy to digest. A tribute to Wagner both unapologetically celebratory and intellectually rigorous!

People who have learned how to write properly organized essays in school might find the kind of writing that Wagner did rather loose, to say the least. I'm far more interested in rock 'n' roll as an artform that appeals to the contemporaries of those who are moderately talented than in the fine art of Mozart, but favorite songs can be done well no matter where they came from. Not half bad is more likely to be my judgment on anything I would like to hear. I have enough CDs to remind myself of music in many forms, but the creative tension involved in trying to write a review of a book like THE TRISTAN CHORD also reminds me of many things that are not in this book.

THE TRISTAN CHORD ~ WAGNER AND PHILOSOPHY by Bryan Magee starts out strongly with the idea that Wagner's work is based on an understanding of life that exceeds anything within the confines of philosophy or knowledge as it is contained in universities. Clearly Nietzsche acquired so many of his ideas from Wagner because Wagner had realized that ancient Athens was the kind of society he wished to inhabit, and the festivals at which tragedies were performed were so different from the commercial nature of entertainment values in modern global intellectual property that the context has to be explained to modern readers as follows:

... Third, human participation was also maximized, in that the whole community was involved. Dramatic performances were accorded the highest possible importance, a significance that was tantamount to religious - nothing that the community did was seen as mattering more, unless it was fighting a war. This attitude could scarcely be further from that of a bourgeois society towards its commercialized art. When Athens put on a play the entire life of the society revolved around it: the day was a public holiday, all other activities came to a halt so that everyone could go to the play, no one talked of anything else, attendance was free, the actors were maintained by the State; what we would call commercial considerations were totally absent. As Wagner summed it up in his essay `Art and Revolution,' published in 1849: `With the Greeks the perfect work of art, the drama, was the sum and substance of all that could be expressed in the Greek nature; it was - in intimate connection with its history - the nation itself that stood facing itself in the work of art, becoming conscious of itself, and, in the space of a few hours, rapturously devouring, as it were, its own essence.' (pp. 86-87).

Few adults in American society were able to offer young people anything as compelling in the 1960s, when Walter Kaufmann was writing and translating, but rock 'n' roll was having more impact. The Beatles are not listed in the index of THE TRISTAN CHORD, but one of their songs, `All You Need Is Love,' is mentioned on page 60, long after comments about the early Wagner opera `Das Liebesverbot' (p. 24) being in response to the intellectual discontent of the Young Germans:

In the arts they saw the classic figures of their immediate past, people such as Goethe and Mozart, as pre-revolutionary, and therefore antediluvian, no longer speaking to the condition of the young. ... They glorified love as it really was, the sexual intoxication of the young, and they saw it as socially subversive. To express it they wanted an art that was freely and frankly erotic. In opera this caused them to look away from Weber to the unabashed sensationalism of the French, and also, much more seriously, to the sensual, hedonistic lyricism of the Italians. Perhaps most important of all to the Young Germans as individuals, they wanted to live out these principles in their own lives, loving and expressing themselves as liberated beings, innovating boldly in politics and the arts, deriding authority, and free for ever from the stultifying conservatism and conventionality of their elders. (pp. 24-25).

The philosophy of Feuerbach is considered a major source for the setting of Wagner's `Ring' cycle of operas. I tend to associate this kind of catastrophe with the Vietnam syndrome of my generation, but THE TRISTAN CHORD links Feuerbachian philosophy of religion to picturing the gods as a gang of crooks. Just imagine, "Isaiah Berlin used to exclaim complainingly, `But they're just a lot of gangsters!'" (p. 54).

The interesting theme for me is the idea that Wagner did a lot of writing to generate the creative tension which he would like to turn into a form of art critical of his own society by composing music that would maintain a stream of consciousness worthy of the kind of life currently possible or imagined as a future ideal. "Because Wagner believed that we live in `a whole world of injustice' which was about to be swept away and replaced by `a righteous world' there is a sense in which he was living for the future." (p. 59). "Because the drama of ancient Greece is the art he is bent on re-establishing, and the opera of his contemporaries is the obstacle he is determined to sweep away, he is liable in a discussion of almost anything to dive off into the question of how whatever it is he is talking about relates to either or both of those things." (p. 91).

... The musical motives need not simply be repeated, they possessed infinite possibilities of musical transformation - the light hearted could be made tragic, the triumphant hollow, the confident full of foreboding, the loving grief-stricken. The potential for musical metamorphosis was protean, and also endlessly subtle. (p. 91).

Rock 'n' roll has filled many pockets with big bucks, but it is also carrying remnants of more than philosophy could say. The vocabulary was entirely different, but the simplicity of a chorus that kept repeating after verses that can go from bad to worse in so many ways, certain songs could be described as blues. Just one example is a song, `(Down to) SEEDS & STEMS (Again)' recorded in Austin, Texas, November, 1973, written Billy Farlow and George Frayne, who do vocals and piano for a group called Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen, which was included on a collection of their songs `Too Much Fun' released on CD in 1990. A looser version on `Marijuana's Greatest Hits Revisited' has someone singing, "I have a few decent memories of what I was going to say. I'm down to seeds and stems again, hurray!" At times, it is nice to discover that the fun is going to stop and life can go back to being about something else. But for us, what else could there possibly be?

This is THE book on Wagner that I hoped would one day be written and which I knew could be written. The author has no use for post-Holocaust axe-grinding or ideological regard, and neither does he indulge in any of the by now ubiquitous but ultimately superficial KULTURGESCHICHTLICH approaches in which Wagner is one more symbol-player to be pigeon-holed and arranged (much like the props in Hans-Juergen Syberberg's "Parsifal" film), nor does he dish up Wagner with a sideorder of Marxist criticism. Instead you get Wagner as a living, breathing, thinking, AND creating human being, a real man (no mere puppet of impersonal cultural forces here!) who encountered ideas and reacted to them in the completely unique way that his personality demanded.

In a way one can only appreciate this book if he has already spent time ploughing through even a fraction of the tendentious trash in print that attempts to deal with this man (e.g. Gutman, Millington, even M. Owen Lee at times). If you have done that, then you will really be in a position to enjoy what Bryan Magee has done, how he has done it, and what a tremendous debt we owe to him for presenting to us Wagner the man in all of his outrageous but fascinating complexity. This is a book for people who are interested in learning more closely what kind of man Wagner actually was (that, for example, he was a 'commanding' personality and what that might mean in real terms, and that, in itself, should not be held against him) and who are equally interested in distinctions being made along the way that really do amount to something and are not just so much critical hot air.

For example, people need to know about Wagner's anti-Semitism, but that fact alone must be seen in relation to the greater fact that he despised so many other groups and that he did so in accordance with his own artistic/intellectual principles. And besides, whence this smarmy assumption that any artist or intellectual must already be some fully formed politically correct forerunner of our own pseudo-enlightened age? It is a woefully dishonest attitude to adopt since it serves to divert us in the end from the demons lurking in our contemporary secular righteousness as it is manufactured and propagated by the literary Left.

After you read this book--and if you have not already done it--read Michael Tanner's "Wagner" and enjoy hearing from someone who actually knows what he is talking about and who has bothered to spend some time thinking about it instead of listening to the clowns who parrot the easy cultural prejudices culled from "The New York Times Review of Books".

Bryan Magee writes with enthusiasm and clarity. He's particularly good at explaining philosophy in layman's terms. According to Magee, Wagner was the most erudite of all the great composers, and his philosophical beliefs profoundly effected his compositions. His intellectual life can be broken into two main periods: the early, one of political radicalism and activism, and the late, one of resignation and mysticism.

As a young man Wagner believed that a revolution - a total annihilation of the existing order - must take place in order for people to start anew to build a free and equal society. This was the intellectual zeitgeist throughout Europe in reaction to the sweeping changes brought about by capitalist industrialization in the early 19th Century. It was, in part, a romantic longing for a simpler past.

In Wagner's first period two figures were his main influences, Mikhail Bakunin, the anarchist, and Ludwig Feuerbach, who taught that mankind created the Gods, or God, in its own image. This was not to dismiss religion but to appraise it seriously as something illuminating about human beings.

After numerous inconsequential attempts at revolution took place throughout Germany in the mid-1800's Wagner became disenchanted with politics. He immersed himself in the philosophy of his contemporary, Arthur Schopenhauer. Schopenhauer wrote a great deal about music and it occupied a large part of his philosophical outlook. Both he and Wagner shared an interest in Buddhist thought.

Schopenhauer maintained that human beings are the embodiment of a metaphysical "will", so that willing, wanting, longing, craving and yearning are not just things we do, they are what we are. And he believed that music was a manifestation of this metaphysical "will." Thus, music directly corresponds to what we ourselves are in our innermost being. Wagner's "late" period dates from his extensive study of Schopenhauer.

Schopenhauer wrote that music proceeds by creating certain wants which it then spins out before satisfying. Even the simplest melody makes us want to close eventually on the "tonic" and provokes dissatisfaction if it ends on any other note than that.

Schopenhauer gave special attention to a technical device in harmony known as "suspension," and this instantly appealed to Wagner's musical sensibility. The suspension in music is the penultimate chord, when what we had just heard was what we thought was the penultimate chord. This causes a sense of discord in the listener. Schopenhauer said "this is clearly an analogue of the satisfaction of the will which is enhanced through delay."

This inspired in Wagner the idea of composing an entire piece of music moving from discord to discord in such a manner that the listener was always in a state of tension waiting for a resolution that did not come. This would be the musical equivalent of the dissatisfied longing , craving, yearning that our being is. There could only be one resolution to it, the final chord that was the end of the musical score (and in an opera, the end of the protagonist's life). This would be a musical expression of the essence of humanity in the universe.

The first chord of Tristan is the most famous chord in the history of music: F, B, D sharp and G sharp or any chord of the same intervals. It contains not one, but two dissonances. It then moves to resolve one of the dissonances but not the other, thus providing resolution, yet not resolution. Thus as the music proceeds, in every chord shift something is resolved but not everything. This "partial satisfaction" yet continued "frustration" carries on through the entire work. The only point where all discord is resolved is in the final chord, which is the musical analogue of freedom from striving, freedom from the tension that is existence. It is like a mystical state of nirvana.

What made this double-dissonance chord so famous was that it, in effect, closed the door on the age of classicism. And it opened the door to impressionism, atonalism, and modern classical music in general.

It was under the influence of the Schopenhauer-Buddhist belief system that Wagner's late works, Tristan, The Mastersingers, and Parsifal were written. Actually, since most of his operas were written piecemeal with many interruptions (sometimes years in length), there are traces of the early and late philosophical influences in almost every opera. Tristan is the only opera that Wagner wrote uninterrupted from start to finish.

There are many more aspects of Wagner's life and work contained in this book. New insights are provided into the Nietzsche-Wagner relationship and the vexed anti-semitism of Wagner. It should be noted that although Magee believes the above conjunction of philosophy and music in Wagner, he is not dogmatic. He says late in the book that "one does not have to be familiar with Schopenhauer's ideas, let alone accept them" to appreciate the greatness of Wagner's music.

This book has added a new dimension to my understanding and appreciation of Wagner. I heartily recommend it.

I'm a careful fellow yet I make quite a claim in the title of this review; and I confidently stand by it. Wagner has stimulated an enormous bibliography, but most of it is biography and/or polemics regarding the man himself or else "way out" (e.g. Jungian) interpretations of his art. Surprisingly little criticism of real seriousness pertains to the actual music. Bryan McGee's book magnificently fills that gap.

It is not a musical analysis per se, but a study of Wagner's changing philosophical values and how they influenced his music...and there is no composer in history who was a more acute intellectual than Wagner and more influenced in his art by ideas. You cannot fully understand his art without this book...it is that seminal. And it does not pertain only to "Tristan und Isolde," despite the title. It covers the entire sweep of Wagner's output.

Mr. McGee brings to his text the virtues which previously made him an outstanding author in "popularizing" philosophy: clarity, honesty, common sense, and even-handed weighing of the evidence. I hesitate to say he "popularized" philosophy. That could suggest a "dumbing down." And that is definitely not this book. It is crystal clear for a layman yet it is a scholar's dream in substance...a rare combination.

The book is an absolute must for anyone who has ever been moved by Richard Wagner's music...and perhaps even for those who have wondered why the rest of us are so moved by it. I cannot recommend it enough. There are only two other texts in the last century which compare, in my opinion: 1) Ernest Neumann's multi-volumn biography of Wagner; and 2) Deryk Cooke's "I Saw the World End," (first published 1979), which is the definitive (if incomplete) analysis of Wagner's "Ring."

If you love Wagner's music, or want to investigate it, this book is both a delight and a "must."

Bryan Rosner created a wonderful resource for those suffering with Lyme Disease. This book is full of great information for using a Rife Machine for the treatment of Lyme.

I have just received my copies of; The top Ten Lyme Disease Treatments, Lyme and Rife Machines and the 2008 Lyme Disease Annual Report and as an artist the first thing I noticed is that they are all attractive books with high gloss covers and attractive cover design. Ok, the giant tick on the 2008 Lyme Disease Annual Report is kind of creepy and made me itch all over just looking at it but it is still an attractive cover and one can't argue it appropriateness. I especially like the navigational theme of the compass and the silhouette of the hiker looking up towards the rising (or setting) sun, on the cover of The Top 10 Lyme Disease Treatments. Lyme Disease and Rife Machines size and cover design had more of a textbook or workbook feel to it which also seemed appropriate to me considering it's technical subject matter.

The second thing I noticed was the long list of well known and highly respected names in the Lyme world that graced the covers, forwards and inner pages of Bryan's books. Names like James Schaller M.D., Sue Vogan the host of "In short order" radio program, Ginger Savely FNP-C (whom I have had the pleasure of briefly cyber chatting with), Tami Duncan from LIA, Susan Williams Public Health Alert contributor and VP of TXLAD, Richard Loyd, PhD an electrotherapeutic device expert. The pages of Bryan's books are filled with ground breaking discoveries from the top minds in the Lyme disease world.

The third thing I noticed was the large print, which will be a Godsend for those Neuro -Lyme sufferers whose vision has been affected and for those that have trouble reading because of other Lyme issues.

If you or someone you know has advanced Lyme disease and are looking for a supplement to your current treatment protocol or especially if you are looking for alternative treatment options then Bryan's books are well worth reading.

For more complete reviews of Bryan's books and more information on Lyme Disease visit my Lyme Blog at: http://lindaslymediseasejournal.blogspot.com

To see art work and poetry created by Lyme sufferers visit the Lyme Awareness Art Projects Website at: http://www.lymeawarenessartproject.com

(You can cut and paste these website addresses in your browser's address bar or just Google "Lyme Awareness Art Project" and "Linda's Lyme Disease Journal")

This is the book that first opened my eyes to both fully understanding the disease and HOPE about what steps can be done to regain wellness. ALL BRIAN'S BOOKS & HIS ANNUAL REPORTS ARE A MUST for both patients and doctors!

I became interested in rife machines, and the hope that they might bring an end to my 13 years of Lyme disease suffering, after reading the chapter on electro-medicine in Bryan Rosner's second book, The Top Ten Lyme Disease Treatments: Defeat Lyme Disease with the Best of Conventional and Alternative Medicine.

At that point, I knew that I needed to purchase Rosner's first book for a deeper study of rife machine therapy. Since he recovered from a devastating case of Lyme using rife machines himself, and since he is an eminently-readable author, I trusted his analysis of rife machine technology.

My family and I have not been disappointed. Rosner's Rife Machine book has been our handbook not only for understanding rife machines but also many other supportive measures (especially detoxification of Lyme poisons and by-products) which must be employed if rife is going to work.

As with his other books (The Top Ten Treatments and the 2008 Lyme Disease Annual Report), Brian shines as a true journalist - objective and understandable. He does not minimize the suffering involved in recovering from Lyme (due to the Herxheimer reactions and detoxification regimens), but prepares the reader for them gently and honestly. As with his other books, he does not betray a loyalty to any specific rife manufacturer or Lyme treatment provider of any kind - although he does quickly and efficiently expose the reader to the names of the most reputable rife manufacturers, detoxification experts, etc., which streamlines the research process for very sick people such as myself.

Finally, he provides additional sources of information, many of them on the Internet such as Yahoo discussion boards about rife and other therapies, so that the reader can quickly connect with thousands of other real people with whom to share their woes and discuss viable treatment options. All of this helped me identify which rife machine to buy first in a matter of about 48 hours!

If you wish to find a real, possibly permanent solution to the Lyme infection ravaging your body, please consider the information presented in Bryan's book and also his second book, The Top Ten Treatments for Lyme Disease, which will probably help "close the circle" of complementary therapies to rife.

Please note: I am not a medical professional of any kind. Please consult your regular physician(s) and other health-care providers for information and relief if you believe yourself to have a medical problem of any kind. Also, please consult your regular physician(s) and other health-care provider(s) before attempting any treatment for any medical problem you believe yourself to have, including treatments such as rife machines and those described in Bryan Rosner's books, discussed above.

If you or someone you love has Lyme Disease or any other tick bourne illness, then you absolutely owe it to yourself or to them to read this book. I believe every Doctor on the planet should read this book! There are so many illnesses which truly are Lyme related, this is an epidemic which the world needs to be made aware of.
Rosner does a superb job of detailing alternative methods of healing and gives you a light at the end of the tunnel. If not for the information reavealed to me within these pages, I would have probably died of complications due to Lyme and it's co-infections. This is written by someone who has really done significant research and knows what he is talking about. I value every word of Rosner's books and this is another one that I would never be without!

I am so grateful to Dr. Vartabedian for writing this book. I have two children who have reflux. The first is 5 years old and when he was an infant, Zantac was the only drug our pediatrician was willing to prescribe. It didn't work very well, but took the edge off for him and we struggled for years with the sleep issues that resulted from him being in so much pain as an infant.

When our second child came along, now 9 weeks old, and his reflux was WORSE--showing up on the day of his birth, no less--I knew I was going to need more help than our pediatrician had offered the first time. I went online to do research and stumbled across this book. It offers commonsense help and experience. The nearest pediatric gastro is 1 hour away from us and our baby screams from the moment we put him in the carseat to the moment we take him out. Being able to take this book to our (new and more openminded) pediatrician to discuss treatment options was critical to his care.

We are about to try our third reflux medication because the first two simply did not offer much relief to our son who seems to be on the extreme end of spectrum. Without all this good information about treatment options and approaches to positioning etc, we would be in the dark or getting our information from the internet. I would much rather get my information from a health care professional!

Dissemination of this critical information about reflux is so important! I am so angered by the pediatricians who basically patted me on the head and gave me the "colic talk." Telling me to get outside help, go for walks, etc. etc. Outside help isn't always readily available and taking time for ME sounds ludicrous when the reason my baby was crying was because he was in PAIN! These doctors seem to think that they can just call something colic and brush aside your concerns. But anyone in pain deserves relief--adult, child, infant, even pet!

Babies who cry and fuss all day long don't do so for their own entertainment or just to spite their parents. They do so because they are in pain. And it is a pediatricians job to help you manage that pain. All this talk about finding time for me was ridiculous because I would get the break I needed without any outside help, if the baby was more comfortable and I didn't have to hold a screaming baby all day and night too! Babies who are in pain don't sleep very well, or at all--babies who get relief from medication and proper positioning will sleep and moms can get rest then too. That is the real colic solved!

Thank you again, Dr. Vartabedian, for dispelling the myth of colic once and for all and giving moms and babies the power to advocate for themselves!

This is the first review I ever write for a product. When my daughter turned 3 weeks she started being EXTREMELLY fussy. Nothing we did seemed to soothe her and I was tired of people telling me that it would go away once she turned three months or that she could sense my stress/anxiety. I knew something was wrong and that she was in pain. We tried changing formulas and the doctor prescribed medicine for acid reflux. The medicine has helped a lot and now I know it not because she can sense my tension. This is an excellent book to understand what our baby is going through. It has also helped us ask appropriate questions to our pediatrition and explain the condition to others who just don't seem to understand. I highly suggest this book to anyone that has a hard to soothe baby - you will realize that you are not alone and it will help you deal with the situation.

If your baby has "colic" or cries for hours nonstop like they are in pain, this is a MUST read.Our son was born with a handful of GI issues and this book helped us sort through how to address them with the doctors that always seemed to brush him off. It turns out he has serve acid reflux as well as food allergies including milk and soy as discussed in this book. As parents who have not been to med school we still feel lost (and it has been a little over a year) when it comes to the medical specialists on this topic but this book really helped shed some light when we really needed. When a baby is only sleeping for 20 minutes and up all night, something is wrong and parents need answers. Read this book!

This is a good introduction to the problems of acid reflux, stomach motility disorder, and so called "colic." It explains how to determine if your infant has GER or GERD (gastric acid reflux.) It gives you examples/stories of other mother's experiences with their children. It helps you understand the condition and gives you knowledge and good questions that you can take to the pediatrician. It also helps you identify if you need to go see a pediatric GI specialist. I highly recommend it. Quick read as well.

So, before I begin my review of this product, here's our background... our son who is currently 6 weeks has had to be sent to the hospital with gas pains so severe that the emergency room doctors were concerned that he might be trying to pass a kidney stone. Turns out he was allergic to soy, we had tried breast, standard formula and lactose intolerance formula. He had a negative reaction to all (including breast believe it or not, I went through tests also to determine what was in my milk even though I was on a mild diet.... cause was deemed later on to be for a substance need, our baby needed rice formula). So..... we tried just the rice formula with the children's mylicon with the VentAire bottles.... somewhat of an improvement, but our child was still needing to go to the doctor weekly for checkups without much success, our pediatrician would even call us daily to see how he was doing. Constipation was questioned, but was never an issue. Our breakthrough occurred when we took our son to a specialist appointment and the lady asking us if our son had excess gas since she noticed that Mylicon was listed as one of his meds. I stated quickly yes and told her of our ordeal. I was told that she was the grandmother of 5 children and a mother of 3 and had tried EVERYTHING to cure their extreme colic. The remedy they found, Hyland's colic tablets, Dr. Brown's bottles, and rice formula. After the doctor appointment I went to the store to give these products a try....... and it was like an angel had spoken to us. Our child could breathe again and was longer tense in the body, as he was making progress against constantly trying to push. I know that I'm being candid but I am hoping that this will help other parents and children that have been or will be in our situation. We are on day 4 of the product switch and WOW, he's a brand new baby! If these products can help a child who's been hospitalized, hopefully these can help yours as well. Pedialyte also works as well to help calm the tummy. I've been using tylenol every 5 hours (excluding when he sleeps) for the first week and have been continuing to use the Mylicon to help with the surface gas. Burping has never been an issue, but his burps and toots have become louder and more productive, sometimes just shifting him in our arms can help him to expel gas! I'll be making this post in numerous areas in hopes to help people.

Hyland's colic tablets, Dr. Brown bottles, Enfamil AR Lipil, infant's tylenol, gas drops is literally our formula to success.

First of all, Amazon.com seems to have screwed up somehow and most of the reviews here are for "The Owl and the Pussycat" illustrated by Jan Brett which transfers this classic tale into a Caribbean setting bursting with colors. I collect versions of this poem so I have that book too and it is truly beautiful. But the one on this page was illustrated by James Marshall and according to the afterword by Maurice Sendak, this was some of his last work before his death. So please don't buy this one based on the reviews, this is not the Jan Brett book.

The pictures of this book are faithful enough to the story and whimsical, done in a little more cartoonish style than Jan Brett's realistic ones. They are full of subtle deadpan humor, especially if you look close enough and read between the lines. For example, what disturbs me greatly, the Pussycat changes colors in this book!!! First she is gray with stripes, then orange with stripes, then grey again, and once the Owl sings to a small guitar she turns white and remains white throughout the rest of the book. What is this??? Is this supposed to imply that the Owl ditched the original Cat for some other kitty while on board the beautiful pea green boat (which is a ship reminiscent of the Titanic, by the way)? Also, the Pussycat looks like a Tomcat in drag. Is this a deliberate allusion to Some Like It Hot? No wonder the Owl looks a little apprehensive in most pictures, rolling his eyes and probably thinking of ways to get out of this stew.

The poem, of course, is a classic... and the reason why I collect these books.

ISBN 0399231935 - A quick glance through the pages of the board book edition from G. P. Putnam's Sons didn't give me high hopes for this book, but I have - once again - been surprised by what can work in a board book!

The owl and the pussycat hop in a boat and head out to sea, where Owl proposes in song. They buy a ring from a pig and are married by a turkey... and that, you have to know, hardly tells the tale at all.

In few, very well-chosen, words, Lear's story can hardly be done justice in a simple recap. Jan Brett's illustrations are just slightly less difficult to put into words - the detail initially seemed to me to be a negative: young children tend to like simpler, less busy, illustrations. I think this is one time they will happily learn to love the busy-ness. The remarkable detail of everything, from Owl's feathers to the individual fronds on the palm trees, adds gorgeous depth to the book.

In addition, a second love story - told only in pictures - takes place, courtesy of Brett. Pussycat carries a yellow fish (we're going to call that one a girl) in a bowl onto the boat and the fish is seen on every page. Underwater, another yellow fish is seen "talking" to other underwater animals and each one he talks to joins him as he follows his trapped-in-a-bowl love, until Owl and Pussycat unknowingly have an underwater parade following them. Is everyone eventually with the one they love? Of course they are! Very well-worth picking up for your short person!!

This is a beautifully illustrated version of _The Owl and the Pussycat_. My three-year-old son absolutely loves looking at the whimsical pictures of the fish and other sealife that are abundant in this book. The pictures are done with beautiful colors and have their own story.

What a beautiful version of Edward Lear's poem. I've always been a James Marshall fan, but this book is absolute tops for his illustrations. The colors are glorious, the characters, as his always are, deftly and lovingly handled. I understand that it was his last work, and it's a shame that it is out of print. Buy it, save it, and pass it around.

Jan Brett's Caribbean-inspired illustrations for the classic Edward Lear poem are teeming with life, and the effect is stunning. The colors, textures, and shapes are a visual treat. Each page also has a different pattern of "straw" border, adorned with a different tropical flower.

The pictures overflow with detail, to the point where there's even a sub-story (pardon the pun) involving two yellow fish.

I didn't give it the full 5 stars because the way the text is broken up across spreads makes it difficult to read the poem with any kind of flow, and because some of Brett's admittedly gorgeous illustrations could (and perhaps should) have had more of a connection to the text. For one notable example -- there's no pot of honey on the boat, and we never get a look at the money wrapped up in the five-pound note!

But there's no denying the beauty of the illustrations, and the Caribbean theme works surprisingly well. This is a great book for anyone -- for newcomers to the splendid silliness of the poem as well as for old fans of the poem who are looking for an edition with fabulous illustrations.

Tears of a Dragon is a great ending to a captivating series! You'll cry, and laugh, and cry some more. But is it really the end? Are all questions answered? Read it and find out, then move on to Oracles of Fire, to see if you questions are answered.

This is an amazing conclusion to the series! I've read the series four times and I would definitely read it again!!!

This is a great book for all ages. It exspreses Love, Joy, and a fight for what is right. Join a teenage boy and girl on a adventure of a lifetime. Fight against evil and win the battle. Knights, Dragons, adventure, who could ask for more? Buy this book and you will see what I mean. Will you dare to read or not?

After three previous books, you might be thinking that Bryan Davis is about done. Hardly. The first three were only warm-up for Tears of a Dragon. It starts a bit slowly, but once you get going, look out! The pace picks up until it exceeds the speed at which the rest of the series moves.

The ending is satisfactory, while still leaving the story open for four more books, starting with Eye of the Oracle (Oracles of Fire). Wonderful!

This is a wonderful book for readers of all ages. Tears of a Dragon is the fourth book in the Dragons in Our Midst series. It's a great conclusion to the series. It is very well written and thought out, the plot is deliciously complex, and the characters are ones that you come to love. It's combination of fantasy, Arthurian legend, and the Bible make it a unique and fascinating tale! I recommend this book for all ages.

I have purchased several of Mr. Garner's books and this one, like all the others, is a masterpiece. Mr. Garner's command and understanding of the English language, combined with his concise, crisp descriptions, make this work an essential addition to anyone's library. I applaud Mr. Garner for his extraordinary efforts and I thank him for sharing his genius with the rest of us.

Garner's Usage is likely the single most useful and entertaining book on the topic. Little else needs to be said about it.

Garner's Modern American Usage My daughter attends law school at SMU in Dallas where Garner is adjuct professor. She says he is a great teacher. We ordered two copies. Yes, it's indispensible as a reference, but it also makes great bedside reading for us wordsmiths.

Being a layman, and not a wordsmith as some of the review-writers here, this will not be an eloquently written review, however the results are the same. I often hear people use words in a way that I believe to be incorrect, for example 'irregardless', but I'm never quite sure. A regular dictionary doesn't usually provide the explanations I'm looking for, and my curiosity goes unanswered. This book is exactly what I need when I question the usage of almost any word. It gives definitions, explanations as to why words are often used incorrectly, as well as pronunciations that are correct or incorrect, and often in a humorous manner! This book would be a must for any writer, but is also sure to satisfy the simply curious!

I ordered this reference based on an essay I read by David Foster Wallace titled "Authority and American Usage." In it, Wallace dissects the ongoing debate between the Prescriptivists (those claiming to defend the King's English) and the Descriptivists (those who claim language rules should reflect current practice rather than old rules), and he does so in the context of, essentially, a long-winded review of Garner's Modern American Usage.
The big problem with Prescriptivism is one of authority, or "why" their rules are what they are. The problem with Descriptivism is one of, well, spinelessness in the sense that rules cannot be based simply on "what everybody else is doing."
Garner, however, deftly walks the line between these two perspectives. He acknowledges common, accepted usage, but still has the guts to make "rules" where necessary. And when he does so, he resolves the "authority" question by logically and fairly arguing his case, rather than simply "that's how it is done."
In my limited reading of Garner's reference so far, I've found it to be amazingly thorough in its examination of everything from common errors to idioms to punctuation, and surprisingly down to earth for a linguistic reference.
Personally, I think everybody should have books like this. But if you write for a living or simply have an interest in language and grammar, this book is essential to your collection.