Burke Books

This book is just an big ad for the Endurox R4 supplement. It's an "scientific-like", but all in all, it's just an comercial super-panphlet for the dietary supplement created by the author!

Ok, there are some nice things about the book: it shows you how to hydrate, to use the carbohidrate window after exercise, that some protein mixed with carbos will make you better. But it keeps telling about the R4 and it's magical properties. In fact, most of the book is useful, BUT the book is TOTALLY BIASED. In fact, studies shows that the precise quantities of substancies this book are not that precise. In example: he says that you should use an 1:4 carbo/protein ratio, when you can have almost the same or better effects with an 1:5 or 1:3 ratio. The ciwuja magical element has not been proven to be effective. In fact, most ciwuja supplements are in reality forbidden substancies, not the natural plant extract.

There are other books that exploit this subject with more precise information, not comercially-oriented. When I raced with professional cyclists in Europe, they tended not to use comercial supplements because of the risks of contamination with forbidden substancies. They just ate plain bread-with-jelly sandwichs and drank a lot of coke.

It's no wonder why the author died: he sold his soul to the devil by writing this pesky book and sell more of HIS supplement!

This is a well written book that is useful regardless of your sport or fitness interest. The author distills the latest research and clearly explains how to manage your nutrition for optimal muscle recovery. The book also gives clear explanations of such procedures as carbohydrate loading, and explains a variety of metabolic issues. It is incredibly useful, and a must for any athlete or fitness enthusiast! I found it impossible to put down.

This book takes a scienteific approach in explaining how muscles work and more importantly, how workouts/trainings can be improved by providing the necessary nutrition at the right times. The recommended nutritional supplements almost totally eliminated the after-workout muscle pain. Not considering the information that the book offers, workouts/training can be a waste of both time and energy.
In addition to the basic idea of how to treat our muscles, the book can also serve as a reference as it gives detailed explanation about several minerals and vitamins.

...and I own ALOT of books on training. I got this book specifically for muscle recovery after running, but it turned out to be alot more. Nutrition for training, helping you understand how the physiology works during & after exercise, what EXACTLY to do during & after for optimal fueling & recovery. I hike, run, mountain bike, and I'm starting adventure racing. The information in this book has helped ALL my activities, and I highly recommend it. I thought I was going to get a "1+2=3" type of formula for muscle recovery and that's it...but the book actually provides much more. I'm buying it for my adventure racing team members.

I thought that this was an interesting and informative book, but a large portion of it seems to be an advertisement for Accelerade and Endurox R4 sports drinks.

This book was an excellent easy to read "story" that demonstrated the value of networking, leveraged systems, and long term residual income. Entertaining method to learn quality information.

This is not a how to book. This book is for people who need help understanding the concept of passive income. Income that shows up whether you do or not! This will get you thinking creatively as to what types of pipelines of income you can create for yourself and your family. How about a virtual pipeline? Most people think the only way to get wealthy is to get a higher paying job. This book helps the everyday person shatter that myth!

The Parable of the pipeline is a captivating story with a serious message on how one can achieve personal and financial freedom. Instead of leaving from pay cheque to pay cheque every month for the whole of one's life, the author is advocating something better and smatter. From one's salary, one needs to put aside residual income for investment. This the author calls building a pipeline. An investment yield returns all the time, any time of the day, in good and bad times, whether one is sick or not. Just like a pipeline, which once constructed keeps pumping daily, year in, year out, whether one is there or not? With a paying job, one is trading time for a pay cheque (a day's work for a day's pay) but if one falls ill and is no longer able to work, the pay cheque also stops and life grinds to a halt for those people who never thought6 of investing in a pipeline, but instead were to content live from month to month on their salaries.

This book was not meant as a complete how to type manual, nor a book to answer all questions and to teach the secret of success. The simple introduction to important concepts that most people have a hard time grasping is this book's forte. After reading this book it would be a good idea to get together with a serious IBO involved with Quixtar and ask them to explain what the next step would be. Other businesses such as Mary Kay, Vitamin distributors or other Network Marketing businesses could also use this book as a training aid. I mention Quixtar because we use this book to introduce our business in a simple understandable format.

I have read with concern some of the reviews on this book. With the exception of the positive ones, I would be happy to find out if the critics have made their millions already.

For us in Africa, there has been an average of about 56% return on investments, particularly in the Kenya, Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE), Ghana and Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), South Africa. This book offers great advice on what otherwise has often seemed difficult to do; saving consistently & investing wisely.

Whether you are leveraging time or money, the analogy of the power behind the Pipeline is a welcome reprieve to many people. From those who are making the transition from full time jobs to doing their own business, those learning to set up their own businesses, and those in investment clubs investing in building big businesses, those who are planning to retire early and want a successful future and have never known how to do it, as well as the ignorant and plainly niave.

It is a must read! especially because of the candid and vivid examples it gives. On the one hand, legendary successful families like the Vanderbilt's, Firestones, Fords, Rockefellers, and on the other hand people who have showed restraint and discipline like Pablo, the small time elementary school teacher the Dentist who got arthritis and Bruno.

Just read it, live your dreams and let the sceptics and sleeping dogs lie.

well, i finally got around to reading thomas paine's "rights of man". his sentences, like in "common sense" are run on in nature. but, to be fair, many writers of that period wrote quite lengthy compound - complex sentences. i found a number of errors, no, not the changes in language over 200 years. basically, i found nearly all of his ideas to be reflections or regurgitations of rousseau or hobbes or any of the other great political philosophers of the era and that which preceded it. the feature, perhaps unique and thus most worthy of reading paine's work, is the combination of logic with his flair for passion and motivation of the people to unite and insist on government's respecting their rights. written after the united states bill of rights had been penned, it clearly wasn't an effort aimed at the people of the united states. by the time this book was written, the people of france were beginning to get restless and beg for democracy and civil rights. paine, having moved to france, might have had some contribution in implanting the seeds of democracy in france. the conversation of the book wanders. it is composed of numerous documents and writings. overall, in order for the reader to capture the flavor of the unrest of the day, this is a well worthwhile book.

In reading Tom Payne it is best to go right to the horse's mouth. Don't buy a volume with a modern day author's interpretation. Tom expresses himself clearly, logically and in up to date readable language. He needs no interpreter. Read what he has to say for yourself and make your own judgements.
This work is rather amazing when you consider the date that he penned these masterpieces. Don't pay any attention to the right-wing attempts at slurring Tom even today. He made sense in 1776 and his arguments makes sense today. If there were no Tom Paine I doubt if their would be an independent United States today - even George Washington admitted that fact. Tom Paine was simply too outspoken and too honest (and too courageous) for his time - or for today's times for that matter.
If you love history, philosophy, or politics as an American this is a man that you must read.
Tom Paine writing style and ability is "inspirational" to say the least.

The book is a response to arguments made by Edmond Burke that were critical to the constitution and behavior that resulted from the French revolution. Edmond Burke believed in the English constitution and the structure of the government in Great Britain. Mr. Paine argued the British did not have a constitution, the government was tyrannical, not efficient, a poor economic system, and not democratic. The sporadic alterations in the general design of the English government was not designed by the people voted on by the population in Great Britain, so it cannot be considered a constitution. The purpose of this work is to make an argument why the constitution set up by the French revolution is superior to the pre-Revolutionary French government and the current British government at the time of publication. No constitution cannot be established but through referendum.

Thomas Paine argues that the equality of man is established by his very nature. His arguments come from the bible and other religious resources. The rationale for the rights from man come from God, but the author does not believe an individual religion has a monopoly on the truth. Pain believed in freedom of association and the organization of individuals in the making a political argument. He believed people of opposing thoughts could come to accommodation while they walked this earth. Anyhow he believed in the arguments of different world views could be made to come to the conclusion all men equal in his natural state.

Paine argued government is formed either through Superstition (Religious manipulation) Power (war, conquering a people) and those that arise out of society (constitutional government). Constitution must occur before the government. The United States and France were his examples of governments coming from society. Governments that exist out of power or superstition produce a hereditary government or government ruled by a certain association not from the population or society. Edmond Burke defended the nobility. Mr. Paine made a distinction between government privileges inherited based on birth and the wealth obtained through inheritance. Titles are nicknames of legal sanction to have authority over others in the population. Consequence is not just unfairness, but a less competent government and the lack of fairness in governmental decisions. Distinction between people must be determined by the person's utility. Does the person improve society by holding a specific position of trust. The sovereign and legislators should be determined by the vote. Transmission of ideas through debate will improve the government. Debate is formed through association. People should be encouraged form into groups in order to form alliance to their point across. Society and Civilization, the wants of the people can be pursued more efficiently when a structure exists where ideas may be debated, thoughts learned, and more may seek participation. Some men have abilities that other do not posses. Society therefore the individual function better under structure but that does not mean all governments are equally as effective. Thomas Paine did not want the rights of a select few chosen through heredity protected at the expense of others. Men seek a fair government where their concerns are heard.

Thomas Paine believed in the Universal Right of Conscience. Man does not worship man, but God. The mortal worships the immortal. Government should not presume or regulate how man worships the immortal neither should government define who the immortal is. - If man is free to judge his own faith his beliefs will hold what is to be true. - If man is free to judge another's faith he will hold or believe the idea of another God to be false. Thomas Pain makes the argument government corrupts religion. I have no argument here. But when he argues that government is the cause of religious intolerance that argument is absurd.


The author saw the forces of history on the side democracy. Thomas Paine saw democracy as a major factor in developing the free enterprise system. He saw the United State as a major example of democracy and prosperity. Man was set free to go after wealth in so doing creating more wealth. He presumed France would soon follow the United States. Thomas Paine argued government sanctioned Charters (monopolies for the Aristocrats ) hindering ingenuity and the betterment of man. The more efficient the trade between people and nations the more wealth is produced.

The author goes into great length to argue for less regressive taxes. Taxes on products hit the poor the hardest and increase the need for more in the population to receive aid to be able to survive. Thomas Paine was an advocate of a more progressive tax. He also argued for more government to those in aid by taking returns of investments and taxes on the wealthy.

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This book was written in 1790 and 91. It was written in two parts. It started out as a rebuttal to Edmund Burke's book on the French Revolution, but as it developed Paine ended up discussing the whole aspect of democracy and goes in quite detail into the ills of a monarchial government. Paine was an ex-patriot Englishman who lived for a time in the United States. His time there coincided with the American Revolution, and Paine was a contemporary of George Washington and Ben Franklin. Paine was an idealist and that comes out clear in this important work. He also made a lot of enemies in England with his radical viewpoints. His was not an easy life, but he certainly lived at a crucial time in world history, and his viewpoints are actually quite valid in some respects even today. Not an easy book to read, but an important work to make the effort to do so.

"Rights of Man" (1791-92) is Thomas Paine's famous response to Edmund Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution of France" (1790). Although it helps have read Burke's essay, a general background is sufficient to understand and appreciate Paine's basic and groundbreaking arguments.

Paine and Burke were originally allies; Burke not only supported self-rule for the American colonies, he also supported the emancipation of the House of Commons from monarchical control and the independence of both Ireland and India. Many of his allies, then, were bewildered by his fervent opposition to the French Revolution; Burke drew the line between territorial autonomy from a distant or aloof government and the total overthrow of existing monarchies and institutions. For Burke, humankind's real enemies were drastic change and "unsocial, uncivil, unconnected chaos," and he proved himself a staunch defender of the status quo, of precedent, and of gradual reform.

Jerry Muller, in his recent--and superb--book "The Mind and the Market" asserts that Burke's denunciation of the French revolution is "the single most influential work of conservative thought published from his day to ours." (This, of course, depends on what one means by "conservative.") Yet Muller and likeminded historians inevitably cherry-pick Burke's more attractive economic and philosophical arguments and foreground Burke's critique, in Muller's words, "of the revolutionary mentality that attempts to create entirely new structures on the basis of rational, abstract principles." (Muller doesn't even mention Paine, much less the example of the United States.) Such a focus inevitably sidesteps Burke's brief for the supremacy of European monarchical institutions and of the landed aristocracy. And that's where Paine comes in.

With his usual acerbic wit and extravagant rhetoric, Paine, in the first part of his treatise, makes mincemeat out of Burke's sillier statements. For example, he finds especially unspeakable Burke's claim that that "the English nation did, at the time of the [1688] Revolution, most solemnly renounce and abdicate [the right of self-rule], for themselves, and for all their posterity for ever." Paine correctly challenges the primacy of a decision made by members of that generation over desires of other generations, questions the right of any generation to surrender the rights of their descendants, and notes that "government is for the living, and not for the dead, it is the living only that has any right in it."

He also chastises the English for a system of hereditary government that virtually guarantees unfettered rule by children, madmen, idiots, and foreign-born pretenders (and he certainly has plenty of examples from which to choose), many of whom led their realms into chaos and terror without the help of radical revolutionaries. And Paine argues that wars would cease with the promotion of democracy and the cessation of the selfish interests of absolutists. His critics rightly respond that the rise of democratic institutions has hardly stopped wars, although one might pose the counterargument that, relatively speaking, democratic governments go to war with each other much less frequently.

In the second part, Paine proposes a radical agenda for an overhaul of the British government. Although his anecdotally based statistics and figures must be viewed with skepticism and a few laughs, the prescience of his proposals is startling: poverty relief, social security, public education, maternity care, homeless shelters, workfare, veteran's benefits, and progressive taxation. His is the agenda of the idealist: "When it shall be said in any country in the world, my poor are happy; neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them; my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want, the taxes are not oppressive . . . when these things can be said, then may that country boast its constitution and its government."

Paine, of course, had the nascent United States to cite in support of his proposals, but he and Burke were debating these matters before the onset of the Jacobin Reign of Terror, which dismayed Paine and seems to have realized Burke's worst fears. Yet, throughout history, for every Robespierre or Lenin, one can find a Mandela or a Walesa; monarchies too were no strangers to upheaval. Paine hardly argued for "mob rule" or even "majority rule"; the French Revolution failed in part because it violated the fundamental tenet that the citizens of each nation have a right to choose whatever rule they please, even "a bad or defective government, . . . so long as the majority to not impose conditions on the minority, different to what they impose on themselves"--a caveat we all should take to heart in today's political climate.

Good first novel. I lost my mom too when I was in my teens, so I felt what the character felt.

A friend of mine had the book, and suggested I read it. I was pleasantly surprised. A good fast and emotional read. The book's cover was a bit much.

I borrowed this book from a friend, and after reading it, I would have purchased it. I liked the way the dialogue whistled along-made me think the book could be adapted into a play. Could have developed more of the characters-however for a first effort-quite good.

I understand this is a first novel, and I had my doubts. I was very surprised with the final outcome-I was brought to tears. The cover of the book is a step from the norm-quite colorful.

This book shares dreams & hopes. It was sad for the loss of the girl's mother but what strength to have become the woman that she had. It is a book that you can't put down and it is my wish that many read this for the dreams are shared by many who wish for love, hope and happy endings. It is also my wish that you have tissues handy.

These are the first two books featuring Irene Kelly an intrepid newspaper reporter, in the series written by Jan
Burke. Set in fictional Las Piernas, CA the stories are very well written, and very readable.
These two books, and the whole series have a good tempo and the stories mov along at a good pace. These are
mysteries that will appeal to a wide audience, the characters are engaging and the plots are intriguing. These
are thoroughly enjoyable books.

Burke's Irene Kelly stories are superb. I suggest you read them all. You'll enjoy the ride.

This was my second Irene Kelly novel and it was even better than the first! It had a unique story with plenty of twists. After Irene had been taken and then rescued, the emotions she felt were so descriptive that I felt for her. I can only imagine what an experience like that would do to a person. I believe this book accurately portrayed those feelings. Also, I just love the romance between Irene and Frank! It's a nice touch to this series. I'm going to continue reading this series. It's great!

Once again Irene Kelly, veteran reporter for the News Express, in the fictional Southern California town of Las Piernas, investigates some serious crime. One of Irene's flaws, unfortunately, is stubbornness which borders on the extreme. As intelligent as she is, she frequently acts on impulse and winds up doing what she has been specifically told not to do, often with life-threatening results. Frank Harriman, a homicide detective with La Piernas Police Department, is Irene's boyfriend and emotional support system.

Jacob Henderson, teenaged son of a district attorney candidate, comes to Irene claiming his father's opponent intends to use smear tactics and claim he is involved in a Satanic cult. A photograph was taken of the boy at a coven gathering, but he was there to convince a young girl, his friend Gethsemane (Sammy), to leave with him. Irene talks to the troubled girl, who substantiates Jacob's story. She tells the reporter that the cult is Wiccan, not Satanist. There are disturbing signs of cult activity in town, most of which seem to have a connection to a local runway shelter, which is sponsored by Frank's neighbor and dear friend, 80 year-old Althea Fremont. That same evening, Halloween, Mrs. Fremont is murdered and Satanic ritual symbols are left on her door. Irene begins to suspect there is more to this coven than meets the eye. Then Sammy disappears and a human heart is left on Irene's doorstep. Danger to Irene escalates when there are no indications she will back-off the case. This is a darker, edgier novel then the previous one, with some grim, brutal torture scenes. To come out of this alive, Irene will have to face-down the devil.

"Sweet Dreams, Irene" is non-stop drama, thrills and chills. However, the narrative is not as taut as I expected it to be, having read two of the author's other books. The primary focus here is on Irene's relationship with Frank - which I actually enjoy. They are both fascinating, well developed characters and the chemistry between them is electric. As usual, Ms. Burke surrounds Irene with a number of interesting and memorable friends and family members, characters who add to the depth and richness of the novel. Our heroine does less investigating than usual here, and, more or less, stumbles into trouble and onto clues rather than initiating the action. This is novel #2 in the series, and the author is just beginning to develop the background storyline and characters. Her writing becomes much tighter, and her plots more well defined, in future books. But this one is well worth the read - so don't miss it.
JANA

This is the second volume in the Irene Kelly/Frank Harrison series .Set as previously in California the book involves newspaperwoman Irene Kelly in shady politics and smear campaigns .She is approached by the 16 year old son of a DA candidate a personable young man who is being wrongly accused of involvement in a Satanic cult .He was present at a meeting of such a group but was seeking to persuade a friend to leave the meeting .The friend in question is Sally a homeless girl who has taken refuge from an unsatisactory home life by running away and is currently living in a shelter for street kids .This is run by Irene's neighbour the kindly Mrs Fremont who is brutally slain in a mannner suggesting Satanic involvemnet .
Soon after Sally is also killed and the reasons are linked to her diary which contains revelations .Before the case is resolved Irene is kidnapped and beaten by two thugs Devon and Raney -and some will find these scenes rather strong meat .
The captivity scenes are quite harrowing and tend to distoirt the novel somewhat .

Its a decent enough book but somewhat clumsily structured -the identity of the killer is revealed with about a quarter of the book remaining while the revelation of the man behind all the violence comes as no great suprise
There is rather too much time given to the familial troubles of Irene's lover the cop Frank Harrison ,in particular his mother's resisitance to the relationship but a lively sea bound climax brings thinks to a satisfactory ending

It marks no real advance on its predecessor but those who enjoyed that book will enjoy this volume too.

Out of the 4 books that I have read so far teaching Adobe Illustrator this is the best - my graphics have improved immensely in the short time that I started using this book (and I'm only a third of the way through the book).

The only downside is that with the update in Illustrator (CS 3) some of the instructions for Illustrator do not work and I have had to search through the Illustrator Help menus to download updated instructions.

So the book needs a little updating, but generally I would recommend this book over others so far.

This book was a huge disappointment. I am so lucky I purchased a different book to teach me Illustrator (Creative Fashion Design with Illustrator by Kevin Tallon). Tallons book actually has extensive step by step tutorials where Sandra Burke simply skims over her exercises.Many of her exercises don't even work corrently. One could never master Photoshop or Illustrator using this book.

Great book! Even if you are a complete beginner you will find this book an informative and useful resource. It gets you up and running quickly with really simple, step-by-step, illustrated techniques for fashion computing using current software.

In my fashion design studio, we predominatly use CorelDraw, Illustrator and Photoshop, and found this book informative for each of these packages. It covers the basics - how to create flat drawings from vests, skirts, shirts, dresses to pants, and then moves on to producing mood and design boards, visualizing your design ideas using Photoshop. The section on creating a digital portfolio is also vital in todays digital world. Plus it covers womenswear, menswear and childrenswear.

It is well illustrated with great examples of flats, illustrations and fashion presentations from illustrators and designers in the fashion industry and from top fashion schools and universities globally.

I have started using Illustrator software recently and this book have served a good support for flat sketching the garments for women,men and kidswear.Is also gives tips to prepare portfolio, but you already should know basics of how to use Illustrator programme. It is nicely illustrated book and one can get ideas. But again its a basic book and does not cover all the aspects of flat sketching.

This book has great pictures of fashion illustrations and is helpful because it gives instructions for 3 different CAD platforms, but as far as giving explicite directions on "how to", I found it lacking in substance. It seems that the really great stuff in the book was still hand drawn,scanned in and manipulated a bit with Photoshop. If you are absolutely brand new to these programs and need help gettting started it might help you. For me, it will be more of a pretty book to look at once in a while rather than a reference for problem solving.

Everyone knows Edmund Burke's most famous quote: "for evil to triumph, it is only necessary for good men to do nothing". As a former lecturer in political science, I was mainly familiar with Burke as the founder of Anglo-conservatism (infinitely more nuanced and modern than his equivalent in Franco-conservatism, the Count Joseph de Maistre). I had also read an early work, namely "An Enquiry into the nature of the Beautiful and the Sublime", which I thought a brilliant little jewel. But there's much more about Burke than that.

O'Brien, the great man of Irish diplomacy, shows in this extraordinary book that Burke, whom recently history has shown as a fawning servant to the political leaders of his time (Rockingham and Pitt), was at the heart of the great fight between George III's royal absolutism and the emerging English democracy. Burke was on the right side of virtually all the fights he picked. He advocated equality before the law for the Irish subjects of the king, first tolerance and then freedom for the American colonies, the end of the colonialist abuses of the East India company, and a quarantine on the infectious ideas of the French Revolution. The later one is still a contentious affair. Zhou En Lai famously opined that it was still too early (in the 1970s) to judge the French Revolution. Burke would have had none of that. As early as 1790, in the "benign" initial phase of the revolution, he foresaw the Terror, the execution of the Royal Family, the Consulate and the Empire, and the French banner covering all of the Europe, in the name of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity".

O'Brien shows the extraordinary situation of an Irish Protestant (always accused of crypto-Catholicism) having great informal influence on the politics of Great Britain, while holding menial offices or representing various "rotten boroughs" in Parliament (this is no aspersion on Burke's memory- that's how politics was done at the time, and anything that gave Burke a pulpit couldn't have been all bad). The "Great Melody" of the title provides the underlying themes around which O'Brien organizes the public part of Burke's life. Far from tiresome, this is a useful device that provides unity and coherence to Burke's thoughts and actions. O'Brien's attacks on mid-century historiography are perfectly adequate, given that much of what was written as that period was designed to regress Burke into irrelevancy, as a sycophant and a lackey. He never was that. He was a good and a great man, and O'Brien does him justice in his book. Perhaps the only fault that I could find in it is a tendency to assume the reader's prior knowledge of the arcanes of Irish history. But these are quibbles. If you can stomach a history of ideas, full of events and studded with memorable characters, this is the book for you.

An excellent biography, highly readable, a bold and ultimately persuasive thesis - that Burke was not only a major political thinker but that he shaped much of the late 18th century. From a fascinating introduction showing how modern scholars had successfully destroyed and obscured Burke's true legacy to its brilliant organizing principle (a line from Yeats), this is a great book. This book should be required reading for every senator, congressman, and presidential candidate - if only to improve the level of discourse by reading Burke's great speeches. Yeats' lines on Burke: "American colonies, Ireland, France, and India/ Harried, and Burke's great melody against it." O'Brien shows how much one great man can do against tyranny, and how little. The book falls short on two counts: one, inadequate bios of Rockingham, Fox, Portland, Pitt the Younger, and his relation to Sam Johnson and Joshua Reynolds. Two, Burke the man does not walk these pages as Johnson does Boswell's book. True, O'Brien has organized the book around Yeats' lines, but the domestic Burke, the friend of Johnson and Reynolds could have been amplified. These are minor faults. This biography is excellent in so many ways that it compares very favorably with Boswell's Johnson and indeed excels it on many fronts.

O'Brien does a masterful job of bringing to life a neglected and misunderstood politician and political theorist. Those whose knowledge of Burke is limited to "Reflections" are in for an awakening. By book's end the reader will feel much like I. Berlin (whose correspondence with CCOB is in the appendix) and recant previously held stereotypes of Burke as a reactionary. A thorough detailing of Burke's writings and speeches makes clear that he was far from the two dimensional figure derided in political theory seminars.

O'Brien makes old political controversies regarding Ireland, India, America and revolutionary France fresh and engaging. An initial puzzle of this book is O'Brien's passionate refutations of the Namierite view of Burke. Yet, Burke continues to be a bogeyman to the academic left for good reason. Burke hated tyranny in any form and virtually alone among his contemporaries recognized that recasting society in the name of an idea promised the worst form of tyranny. Devotees of the French Revolution detest Burke whose credentials as a champion of the oppressed in Ireland, India and America were beyond reproof.

O'Brien himself, however, was curiously un-Burkean during his political career as it related to the Cold War. Burke correctly recognized that the French Revolution was a proto-totalitarian movement. He saved his most withering scorn for his former allies who viewed the revolution as a net benefit for the French and the world. In contrast, O'Brien in his UN days urged that Ireland follow the "decent" countries such as Sweden and stay above the US-Soviet fray. One wishes that O'Brien, now in his eighties, would have come to grips with his past as a neutral in the struggle between freedom and the successors of the French Revolution.

"The Great Melody" by Conor Cruise O'Brien is not your traditional biography; there is little here concerning Burke's personal and family life. Instead, the work concentrates on Burke's political career and thought and, specifically, how they relate to his Irish heritage. The result is a fascinating look into the mind and personality of a man who suffered from a conflict of emotions over his Irish heritage that included his father's conversion to Protestantism while his mother and wife remained Catholic. Burke himself was torn in different directions his entire life; loyalty to Britain and also his Irish ancestors and friends suffering under the Penal Laws, loyalty to the British constitution, but also a deep feeling for the need of justice for the oppressed people at home and abroad.

O'Bien's book takes an in-depth look at Burke's career in parliament and as a member of the Whig party through an extensive analysis of his letters, speeches, political relationships, and writings, specifically, as they relate to his struggle on behalf of the American colonists, the struggle of the Irish Catholics, the people of India suffering at the hands of the rapacious East India Co., and the French Revolution.

The work can be a little dry at times and tends to quote in an overly lengthy manner, but the immense erudition and scholarship and the insightful picture of Burke that emerges more than compensate for this. I do wish, however, that O'Brien had spent more time on "Reflections On The Revolution in France," but he feels that since it is so readily available to the reader there is no need. Finally we see an Edmund Burke as he really was and not the "old reactionary" that is so often depicted. We come to understand that Burke always believed that "the people are the true legislator," that Burke did not want to see Americans in Parliament who were slave holders, that he was a life-long opponent of increased powers for the Crown and the corruption such power entailed, that he was one of the few who consistently fought against injustice toward the American colonials, that he found all authoritaianism abhorrent, and that he opposed commercial monopolies and the abuse of power in all its forms. But, because he opposed the overturning of society and its reengineering on the basis of "metaphysical abstractions," he was often portrayed as a reactionary by later pundits. Lewis Namier and his followers are particularly taken to task by O'Brien for this tendency. In the end we see a Burke who always supported basic human rights, but remained constantly aware that real life circumstances must make social and political change possible if such change is not to lead to chaos and violence. Burke's fear of radicalism based upon abstract theory was real and the destructiveness of the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, and the Nazi bio-racial religion more than sufficiently proves his point. A reading of O'Brien's fine book can only lead the intelligent reader to a renewed respect for a great man, a decent and liberal minded man, and a man of immense vision.

There is much in O'Brien's book that is interesting, original and insightful. But it suffers from two fatal flaws, one stylistic/structural, one substantive: (1) It is a mess. It is part personal biography, part intellectual biography, part annotated anthology, all mixed together in a confusing and unsatisfactory hodge-podge that may have been deliberate, given Burke's (and therefore O'Brien's) aversion to systems and abstraction. It is as if the author set out with a firm intention to portray Burke a certain way, collected up all the relevant facts, but just couldn't pull it all together in the end. It reads like a work-in-progress, several drafts short of completion and in dire need of a good editor; (2) It seriously overstates its case, and is therefore simply not reliable as an account of Burke's thought. O'Brien's Burke is a pluralist liberal, one of the "good guys" not to be classed among the "reactionaries", as Isaiah Berlin has done. But as Berlin points out--with far too much courtly politeness--in his exchange with O'Brien (reproduced in the appendix), the author has simply turned a blind eye to those aspects of his subject that make him appear illiberal. Most liberals at the time supported the French Revolution, at least in its early phase, and with good reason: it destroyed a confused mass of privilege, injustice and corruption that served the interests of a largely hereditary elite, which Burke vigorously defended. Most liberals since have supported it too. Few (if any) liberals today would hesitate to condemn someone who defended tradition, hereditary privilege and deference to authority as Burke did. To say that Burke was a liberal just doesn't wash. Granted he had SOME liberal tendencies, but he had many other tendencies that liberals have always found repugnant. It is a crude and one-sided portrait. O'Brien subscribes to the old-fashioned Cold War liberalism of Jacob Talmon, who interpreted the struggle between liberal democracy and "totalitarianism" in the 20th Century as a replay of the struggle between liberalism constitutionalism and the Terror. O'Brien's agenda in this book is to accept this dubious and anachronistic framework and to place Burke firmly on the "correct" side in it, with a demonic Rousseau on the other. THE GREAT MELODY was probably out-of-date before O'Brien wrote a word of it, just as much of Burke was when it appeared in the eighteenth century.

I must admit that I was a bit skeptical at first, but this book is like a freight train steeming down the tracks with a belly full of coal. Burke has an uncanny ability to pull you in and empathize with his characters. As a professor of literature at a well-to-do Ivy league school, I added this book to our reading list and received kudos from many a Michael Stipe wannabee. Bravo Burke. Long Live Dog Daughter Down

I read about 100 pages of this minimalist novella (come on - this is NOT a BOOK) and wanted to gargle with razor blades. It's ssssoooooo minimalist & boring you can't get a handle on what's happening where why to whom what time of year ... well I'm sorry but I would never read another of this author's attempts. I like to get lost in a story, this one just shoved me away. Thank goodness I got this one from the library. $24.00 for 200 pages????????

There is no doubt that Shannon Burke has emerged as an important writer. This work is very hard to forget. You'd like to tell yourself that since it's a novel, he's just making up stuff--but as the New York Times pointed out, Burke spent about five years in Harlem as an EMT. In a way, this is a war novel, akin to early Hemingway. Burke is trying to make sense of what he saw and experienced, a lot of it gut-wrenching.

If you like spiffy, bleach-cleaned, MFA-program novels, this ain't for you. Burke's work harkens back to an earlier time in American literature, when books were earned and not gift-wrapped by faculty advisers. The writing here is spare, poetic, and perfectly pitched. The characters leap off the page. Money well spent in my opinion.

This is a book that grows on you. The prose is sparse, and the book essentially consists of short vignettes that initially have no apparent meaning or relation to the other scenes. I was at first somewhat frustrated with the novel because I could not immediately figure out where the plot was leading to, or even what the plot was. However, the scenes gradually build to a crescendo, and the result is a book that is simultaneously sad and inspirational, one that creates a mood that lingers long after you have finished it.

Burke's writing style is distinctive and highly impressive for a first novel. It probably didn't help that I read this book shortly after finishing Tom Wolfe's latest novel, as the two styles could not be more different. Wolfe can devote paragraphs to describing the clothing of a minor character, and it takes at least days of devoted reading to get through his tomes. I zipped through Safelight, however, in just a couple of hours. But I do not mean to imply that book is lightweight; its message of regret, grief, and daring to love despite inevitable heartbreak makes this a disturbing yet highly moving novel. I look forward to reading more of Burke's work in the future.

"Safelight" is a novel that pulls you in at the start. There is no building of characters, no climax. You either step right in and enjoy the ride or get off.

The main character is such a hard nut to crack. There are some authors who want you to empathize wth the characters and you are drawn into the story. Mr. Burke does the opposite, he intentionally keeps the main character distant. You never really get inside of what he's like, only a glimpse that he does have feelings when he carries on a relationship with an HIV positive female.

The book wasn't very long and reads like snapshots. You'll get your focus but then it's gone. You'll either finish this book and stick with it because reading this chaos is manageable or you'll put it down out of frustration that it's all over the place. There's no middle ground with it. I invite you to give it a try and if you finish it I can guarantee you won't forget it.

After the first book, needless to say, i was completely hooked. But now that Ive finished the second I know I will NOT be able to put the third one down. Each time I think I know who the killer is theres a twist that reveals that I was completely wrong! I know once I finish this last part its gonna blow my mind. I know Morgan Burke is going to do something totally shocking. For anyone who is deciding whether they should read this trilogy no doubt about it! GO FOR IT!

The party room is a really good book. I loved to read it because it is a murder case and I love you read books like that. It was about a girl who is just getting over her best friend who was murdered 18 months ago. She is getting really weird calls from the man who was the murderer and she freaks out. She tries to forget about the man who keeps calling her and goes out to a party and meets this new man and then she starts to like him. Then all of a sudden the man shows up at her house and he just want to talk to her to tell her the real story what happened. He gets into her head; she thinks about it and thinks hard. Then she starts to realize that he might be right. She tries and tries to forget about it and then she tries to figure out who had killed her best friend. The man who told her the story was innocent she then listens to what he has to say. He goes through a really long story and tells her what he did and where he was at, that night and she is trying to remember what and where she was at. Then out of a blink of an eye she knows that he is right and she knows it but how does her prove it to her friends. She tries to tell her friends but they just can't and won't believe her when she is trying to telling them. They think she is a liar and is going psycho. Then she walks away in hand cuffs.

This book was such a waste of my time and money.I started it and couldn't finish it.There are many unappropriate scenes in this book.You might wannt to try Lois Duncan,Joan Lowery Nixon,and Caroline B.Cooney if you are looking for good horror-thrillers!

This book was great. My older sister recommended it to me and i loved it. However, for some kids it might not be appropriate, depending on the situations you grew up in and live in.

I loved this book. Just like the first I could not put it down. You learned more about Sam and some new characters you think may have killed her. At some parts I had no idea what was going to happen next. I would read this book.

Conflicts, contradictions and paradoxes in thinking can spell disaster for even a highly motivated, astute and well grounded trader. Through simple exercises, traders will learn how to think in terms of probabilities, and adopt the specific beliefs necessary to developing a winner's mindset. After-Hours and More!

An excellent book on after-hour trading and technical analysis that cuts through all the hype surrounding this subject. Save yourself a lot of money and read this book BEFORE you make your mistakes!

One of the keys to successful trading is recognizing that the market is not a combatant. It is not a bloodstained arena, a boxing ring, a firefight, or even a physical thing. This book also helped me confirm something I have always suspected: trading should be easy. This is to say, the journey is hard and grueling, but once you get there the sense of conflict and adversity should be gone. Before-During and After-Hours. Congratulations!

After-Hours Trading Made Easy goes way beyond after-hours trading. It is not just a after-hours trading manual but a true stock market primer.

Chapter 10 alone is worth the price of the book. It includes Duarte's Super Seven Market Forecaster, a proprietary buy/sell indicator. If the surest way to make money is to invest in the market the second must be not to loose principle. The tables tell the tale, this indicator keeps investors from going against the market.

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Save your money, unless you don't know that you can still make trades before and after the normal, 9:30 am to 4:00 pm, stock market hours of operation.

This book in my opinion doesn't do much other than to explain, you can trade after hours if you choose a broker that allows you access to the ECN's which operate longer hours then the normal market times. They fill the rest of the book with explanations of charting, and other technical analysis, and there are many other books that do that much better. I found nothing on techniques of trading after hours, which this book implies will make easy.

I would sell this book used, but my ethics prevent me from hoisting this on you.