Burke Books

This factual account of the first recorded south-north crossing of Australia, in Victorian times, is more amazing than any fictional adventure would dare be. A film of this book several years ago did surprising little raise awareness of the undertaking. The story recounts the key attempts and the elaborate expeditions involved. The crux of the story really revolves around a series of unfortunate & serious mishaps and incredible near misses. Tragedy was almost avoided numerous times but ultimately...well read the book; the story ultimately has a sad and a happy ending! The fact that the story is known and accurately recorded is in itself an incredible sub-plot. It is hard to believe sometimes that this is a true story -- yet this is a case of real life being more amazing than one would dare write as fiction! The story is quite detailed but hang in there, the threads all come together in an incredible finale.

When I was about 11 my uncle who had spent 40 years in the Royal Canadian Navy, handed me slender volume called Cooper's Creek. Since I had no idea where Cooper's Creek was at that age I left in on my shelf where it gathered dust for the next 25 years, and was lost in one of my many house moves.

Over the course of the years I kept coming across some of Alan Moorhead's books, on bookshelves in Canada, the UK, India, Hong Kong and Egypt and even the United States. I happened to read another book of his "Gallipoli." He is a superb writer.

Cooper's Creek is exactly the same. After reading more of Moorehead's work (including a history of the North Africa Campaign) I resolved to find this book and read it. But even in Australia it had been out of print. I found it in London, England and hand carried it to Canada. The tale of imperial adventure warmed me over a few long, cold Canadian nights.

In the 50s and 60s narrative history was at its pre-postmodern highpoint. Moorehead's narrative flows like a novel, there is plenty to get your teeth into and also interesting tidbits. Also, unlike a lot of 60s historians Moorehead is not afraid to pass judgment on anyone.

The folley and bravery of the Burke-Wills expedition is recouted for all those unfamiliar with Australian history. Attempting to map the interior of Australia was a dauting proceedure, and was the equivalent of travelling twice the distance Lewis and Clark covered overland in their American Odyssey.

Those unfamiliar with 60s narrative may find the contemporary account of the aborigines to be paternal and patronising, but that is projecting our values backward.

It is one of the greatest true tales of adventure written, and ranks alongside the Scott, Shackelton explorations in Antarctica and the first land traverse of the North American Continent by Alexander Mackenzie.

A ripping good read and well worth the effort to track it down.

Moorehead by the way was a very popular narrative historian of the 50s and 60s (a bit like a contemporary John Keegan). He was also one of the foremost war correspondents in WWII and worked for Newspapers in Australia, the UK and Canada. An autobiography of his life has just been re-published but I forget the title.

As a patient and understanding reader, this was a good story. However, I don't feel that the book was easy to read and was slightly boring. By saying this, I'm not saying I did not enjoy learning about the expedition of brave men traversing the Australian continent. In many ways, this is a devastating story. It's sad and true. Unless you are an avid Australian history researcher, it will be very difficult to utilize any of the information from this story. Keep that in mind before attempting to purchase this book.

In 1860 the Victorian Exploration Expedition, under the command of Robert O'Hara Burke, set out from Melbourne to cross Australia to the Gulf of Carpenteria and to explore the unknown centre of the continent. Burke, and his second-in-command William J. Wills, achieved their goal of crossing the continent, opening up a vast new area of Australia. But the expedition ended in disaster, with the death from starvation of both Burke and Wills at Cooper's Creek. This book tells the story of the expedition from the historical context and initial planning, to the events of the expedition itself, to the proceedings of the Royal Commission that investigated the expedition's disasterous end. A moving story well written.

The Burke-Wills expedition, which set out from Melbourne in 1860 to explore the still-unmapped interior of Australia, ended in catastrophe. Bad luck, bad planning, and bad decisions along the way led to terrible suffering for every man on the expedition, and death for many of them. As a piece of exploration, the Burke-Wills venture was an outright fiasco. As an example of bravery and endurance under horrific conditions, it's matched only by Robert Scott's fatal 1912 attempt to reach the South Pole.

Moorehead, Australian by birth, knows both the story and the setting well, and his writing does justice to both. His descriptions of the land are rich and detailed, while his descriptions of the explorers are spare and journalistic. The combination evokes, perfectly, the sense of ragged men trudging endlessly through an alien landscape, oblivious to everything but the need to go on.

Moorehead wrote _Cooper's Creek_ in 1963, and the book shows its age in two ways. It judges Burke's dubious decisions fairly mildly, where a later historian might have been more critical. More significantly, it treats the Aborigenes with an air of condecension that carries with it the distinctive stink of racism.

These are small flaws in an otherwise superb book, however. If true stories of impossible journeys appeal to you, take the trouble to seek it out.

There is no doubt this is a creative and interesting book. As other reviewers have pointed out, it is well-written, contains unusual and interesting characters, and never turns into a typical horror/fantasy book. Unfortunately, in avoiding all of the usual stereotypes and devices, the author lost coherence in plot and direction. In a sense, too much happens, there are too many twists and characters. By the end, the reader really has no sense of the shape of the reality the writer intended to create. Similarly, a book that contains such a strong theme of sin/punishment/repentance must eventually reveal where the author stands, and not seemingly take all positions at once. And finally, mystical killer deer?

Clearly worth reading, but not the transcendent experience that some other reviewers portray. Creativity is wonderful, but it is even better with a modicum of discipline and focus.

KP Burke is well on his way to being the new master of "quiet horror." However, CURRENCY is wild, over-the-top, violent, and about as far from "quiet horror" as it gets. Guess what? He still rocks. If you haven't read this guy, you don't know what you're missing.

Currency of souls is a story about a town of people who are damned and the story of a man who is fighting to make things right. There is a mixture of genres within this story, you'll find a bit of mystery, horror, and SF. I can't just give it one label because there is so much happening. Some stories of the character I enjoyed more than others and wanted to know more about them and their backgrounds. If you've ever read any of Kealan's previous work, you'll find it a bit different. It was a very enjoyable read. I do recommend that you pick it and give it chance. You can't go wrong with Kealan Patrick Burke.

Welcome to Eddie's Tavern, the only functioning waterhole in a near-dead town. It's a typical Saturday night at Eddie's, where nothing - from the bizarre group of regulars to the key-jangling preacher who just walked in the door - is typical.
CURRENCY OF SOULS is Kealan Patrick Burke's first full-length step outside of the world of Tim Quinn, the star character of the author's breakout novella THE TURTLE BOY and its sequels THE HIDES and VESSELS. It's an ambitious - and successful - step, revealing that Burke is well on his way to fulfilling the promise of his earlier efforts.
In CURRENCY, Burke wastes no time in introducing his quirky cast, from a haunted lawman and his estranged son to a nudist, a seductress, a mute and a man named Cadaver. Just as we get comfortable with this group of outcasts, Burke upsets the apple cart. It's a trick the author pulls off time and time again in the book - every time the reader gains a foothold, events take place that turn the characters (and us) inside-out and upside-down.
The book moves at a breakneck pace, and might benefit from a pause here and there so we can catch our breath. Also, the large cast (which continues to grow throughout the book), at times veers dangerously close to breaking out of Burke's control. But character continues to be a strong point in Burke's work, and the way he draws each of these people in clear, often elegant prose, ensures that we stay invested in each of them.
CURRENCY OF SOULS is a sprawling, surreal examination of hope and hopelessness, sin and redemption. It's a big step in the already exciting career of a true rising star, and is highly recommended.

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Courage.

When I finished reading Kealan Patrick Burke's latest novel, Currency of Souls, that was the word that came first and foremost to my mind. Courage. It takes some mighty large cajones to write a book like this. To take a large cast, give each and every one an uber-detailed, dark and dirty past, throw them in a cocktail shaker called Milestone, throw the contents onto the bar like a toss of the dice, and to have the balls to honestly record on the page whatever insane asylum train wreck comes up... Good God!

What the hell is this book even about? Debt? The Devil? Revenge? Regret? Sixties lounge singers? Native American Mythology? Murder? Fathers and Sons? Husbands and Wives? It's like an unsettling feeling that you can't quite describe... or one you don't want to describe. I know that the story moved me. I know that the story stretched my imagination to its limits to keep up with what it was being force-fed. Like a grisly car crash, I know that I couldn't look away once I caught a glimpse. I know that it doesn't come close to falling into the contemporary genre categories. I know that when I finished reading it I felt like I was privy to information that I never wanted to know, but that I now need to know.

I know that I loved every second of it.

As a reader, every once in a great while you get the opportunity to experience a story that doesn't just go against the grain, it scratches it up beyond comprehension leaving broken and bloody fingernails behind... and still succeeds as a brilliant story. Every once in a great while, you get to come across as story that questions everything you thought you knew about what the concept of story means. Burke has made me question everything about reading and writing, and for that, I thank him.

I really liked this book. Here's a rarity - someone with credible experience in the trust and investment business who can actually write! His style is very engaging - I actually laughed out loud at his witty commentary! Only a dry old fogey (or a jealous competitor) would complain about this book. It's a great "How-to" manual for any individual trustee or fiduciary who has to decide on how to invest. What's more, given the age of the book (it was published in 1999), it seems like the author was on the leading edge (or at least one of the very few willing to commit their reputations in writing) to laud behavior finance (remember, BF didn't win a Nobel Prize until several years later in 2002) and expose modern portfolio theory for what it truly is. All in all - it's a quick read that's jam packed with helpful checklists and forms. If I were a bank trust officer, I wouldn't want my clients to know what's in this book for fear of losing my job!

This book is a must read for anyone (including honest professionals) who is responsible for investing other people's money. The author has the perfect credentials to write this books. He was a trust officer, a mutual fund manager and an investment adviser. He knows where to go to uncover the industry's skeletons and he's not afraid to do so. While the entire book is written in a peppy prose that keeps the reader glued to the page, my favorite section was the expose the author calls "the Seven Deadly Sins of Professional Money Managers." Though I have no doubt this section will inspire the wrath of those professionals who commit these sins, I found the section very entertaining and very helpful to those very busy individuals who, as a trustee or fiduciary, may not have the time to dig deep enough when listening to a typical investment sales pitch. In fact, I found the most useful part of the book to be the many forms and checklists provided by the author. These, together with several case studies where the author takes the reader through a variety of real life situation, makes the book hit a home run. If the author can speak half as well as he can write, I'd love to see him give a presentation on this or other related topics.

In my opinion, a must read for every retirement plan trustee and fiduciary. Check it out.

This book throws out just about all the knowledge that has been accumulated by the professional and academic investment community over the past five decades. The result is an amateurish book. The author Christopher Carosa explicitly rejects assets allocation and states that under no circumstance should an investor buy long-term bonds. With regard to risk management, which he makes light of as one of his Seven Deadly Sins, he states that one should "never consider risk tolerance ahead of the actual lifetime goals and associated investment goals." In his opinion, portfolios should either be short-term (invested in shorter-term bonds) or long-term (invested in all stock). He rehashes his idea repeatedly that an investor should hire a local Registered Investment Adviser or a local mutual fund, both of which his firm Carosa, Stanton & DePaolo Asset Management offers in the western New York area. He tells readers to avoid the workaholic investment adviser and not to work with a firm that uses an investment committee approach. He is very opinionated, repeats himself and does not offer much of substance to a trustee looking to gain an overview of responsibilities and investment guidance.

Depending upon your needs, I'd recommend instead Robert Fry's Nonprofit Investment Policies, Andrew Tobias's The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need, or John Train's Investing and Managing Trusts Under the New Prudent Investor Rule.

I saw the author give a presentation recently and obtained a copy of his book. Wow! Who knew this whole thing goes back to the Magna Carta (the beginning of the book is rivetting to this ol' history buff). More importantly, the book is exactly what I've been looking for. As a director on a non-profit board, I've often been uncomfortable with the virtual "rubber stamp" the board usually applied to its investment decisions. Granted, our endowment is modest, but now I have an easy-to-read, easy-to-understand step-by-step process to review investments. I even have some sneaky questions. (I can readily picture my broker cringing when I ask them!) This is a great book. It's written in a lively style. I'm going to recommend every member of our board read it.

First and foremost, Footsteps of the Hawk is a high octane, burn-your-weekend crime novel that will hook you into Vachss' work and world forever. Second of all, Andrew Vachss has expanded my mind. Really. At one of his readings, Andrew Vachss described his books as "non-fiction thinly disguised as fiction." The world his characters navigate is violent, nihilistic and unforgiving. And tragically real. But it is this context that makes Vachss' assertion of the potential of the human spirit and its capacity to love in spite of overwhelming degradation, cruelty and horror -- that makes it such compelling stuff to read.

(This is his eighth book, and where it's not necessary to read them in order, here they are up to Footsteps of the Hawk: Flood, Strega, Blue Belle, Hard Candy, Blossom, Sacrifice, Down in the Zero).

Burke, ex-con- not ex-cop- finds himself hired by a police- woman who insists that a recently arrested serial killer is innocent, and wants him to find proof. Burke's old nemesis, Officer Morales, is her prime suspect, and is also hot on Burke's tail. A gripping page-turner, one of Vachss's best.

Vachss started out as one hell of a crime writer ("Strega", "Blue Belle"). But by "Down in the Zero", he looked as played out as the Rolling Stones. "Footsteps" showed he's still capable of writing brilliantly.

What makes this novel great is that it shows Burke has changed considerably from the person he once was (no longer carying a gun, keeping his temper in check), yet the change is completely plausable because, at his core, he's the same person (tough and cynical). Vachss's humor is as sharp as ever. So is his prose.

As a huge Andrew Vachss fan who would love to adopt his main man, Burke (and "make his pain go away" - I'll take Pansy too!), I never thought I would see the day when I would give one of this author's novels a below average rating. But, hey...we all have off days/months/years. "Footsteps of the Hawk" is the eighth consecutive Burke book I have read and the only one I am not enthused about - not the usual 5 Star read, in other words. I will continue on, however, gobbling-up the series in order until there is no more...and then will wait until Mr. Vachss is kind enough to supply a new novel for those of us who need a fix.

"Footsteps of the Hawk" features two rogue cops with individual agendas. They both dedicate too much of their valuable time searching for Burke. With these folks, five minutes would be too much time! They actually know where to find him...occasionally, and won't get off his back. Detective Belinda Roberts, who can be extemely seductive when she wants to be, (Burke sees right through her, of course), wants our man to arrange a jail break to free a guy accused of a series of grisley murder/rapes. She swears to the con's innocence. Don't they all? Detective Jorge Morales comes accross as a major psycho who has a jones for Burke....one that makes him want to eliminate Burke permanently. He is fixated, one might say. He is also ugly and out of control...beneath an obsessively controlled facade. Ready to explode. Could Morales have "done" the women?

The novel is set in early 1990s NYC, just after Mayor Guiliani came to office with the intent to clean up the City's mean streets. (Hah!) For those who have not met Burke before - and here is definiterly not the place to make his acquaintance - he is a hard-boiled, in-your-face, ex-con detective, who still isn't sure on which side of the law he prefers to operate. Abandoned at birth, father and mother unknown, Burke has no real first name. "Baby boy" is the name on his birth certificate. He is a survivor. He's also a standup guy....a righteous man.

P. I. Burke, as always, is the narrator. And the narrative, at times, goes off on a tangent, like Burke's thought processes. This occasional stream of consciousness has always been extremely effective and enhances the detective's persona. However, here Vachss wanders off way too much and his usual tight writing style suffers for it. The storyline is much too convoluted, and even Vachss' usually strong cast of characters cannot shore-up this piece of fiction enough to make it more enjoyable.

Actually, there is one scene that is excellent, featuring Mama Wong and her granddaughter Flower. Mama is group doyenne and mother, of sorts, to Burke's "real family" - a Chinese Jewish mother and restaurateur. She "keeps her prices high and the ambiance foul to discourage yuppies," cares for the gang and holds Burke's stash. She is teaching calligraphy to the little girl who is copying an ancient haiku:

"the ferret hunting
eyes on the ground, never hears
footsteps of the hawk."

Best part of the novel.
JANA

Burke is the anti-hero of the nineties. If you are ready to move on from the Robert Parker series than you areready for this new, extremely neurotic individualist. There is a zen quality to Burke -- things seem to happen around him and he has limited chances to influence his situation. He does have a team of equally colorful cohorts, who are perfect role players to Burke's Michael Jordan. Once you get used to this character its hard to stop liking him.

In a graduate course that I was taking on Radio Astronomy, this book was often criticized by the students. In short, it was a difficult book to wade through. If my education had included more study of the Greek alphabet, maybe the long recitations of formulae would not have made this the book you can't pick up. I'm just going to assume that all the math you would want is right here but you don't get to see them in action. It is pretty clearly a course textbook but there are no problems to solve and no attempt to work through examples.

I do want to make a strong plug for the 3 appendices. One is a good introduction to Fourier transforms (27 formulae in 8 pages without any examples worked out - typical for this book); the second discusses celestial coordinates, distances and time; the third is the best 7 page history of radio astronomy that you will find.

This is a most excellent introduction to Radio astronomy. The book is well layed out, has good explanations and provides many leads to further study. The book's contents are:

Radio telescopes as antennas. Signal detection and noise. Single-aperture raido telescopes. The two element interferometer. Aperture synthesis. The absorption, amplification, refraction and attenuation of radio waves. Galactic continuum radiation. The interstellar medium. Galactic Dynamics. Stars. Pulsars. Radio galaxies and quasars. Cosmology and the cosmic microwave background. Cosmology: discrete radio sources and gravitational lenses. The place of radio in astronomy.

Well, I got to say, this does pass the test of a pretty good introduction to the subject for someone with a good technical background. What others have said stands. That said, the careful reader with be constantly annoyed with the flagrant basic errors of math and language that frequent this text. Where the heck were the editors and proof-readers for this thing? Very often equations are written that are just flat out wrong due to omissions or typos that the reader must deduce. In other cases statements are made in the text I suppose to try to explain a point but in the end just demonstrate that the author's had absolutely no idea what they were talking about since what they state is in fact just plain wrong, oftentimes just plain bad basic math. Finally there is a general sloppiness to the writing style with the frequent use of ambiguous pronouns that often point to the wrong subject or predicate.

Some small examples:

Eq 5.8 is s = s0 + d

(Vectors, little hats over s and s0 to indicate unit vectors, and d is actually the greek letter sigma).

The text following states:

------
where d is a small vector, normal to s0. (It must be normal, since both s and s0 are unit vectors).
------

The parenthetical adds absolutely nothing to the understanding of the problem and is IN FACT WRONG. If s and s0 are unit vectors then d CANNOT be normal to EITHER ONE OF THEM. Basic vector math folks, in fact just a basic understanding of a right triangle. Amazing that the authors went out of their way to make a statement that not only contains no illuminating information but is flat out wrong. Not only that, but no proof-reader or editor noticed this obvious error - this is high-school math here. Other examples such as this are throughout the text.

Another example highlighting the awful writing style:

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The autocorrelation function is related to the spectrum of f(t); for zero time shift it is simply its square.
------

Try reading that a few times. The first clause is true. The second clause is extremely confusing. I love that "it" and "its" are in the same clause for starters. To top it off "its" refers to f(t) which would be your last guess unless you already knew what they were trying to say. It is plain bad english. Again, numerous examples throughout the text.

I can't really fault the authors to much here. Writing a book is a very hard task and the authors have taken on a very wide subject and as far as information content goes have done a very good job. Unfortunately it reads a bit like some sloppy class notes. Often the most knowledgable folks, and even the best teachers, are not the best writers. It is the job of the editor to bridge the gap here. In this case the editors at Cambridge University Press should be ashamed of themselves. They have let both the authors and their readers down.

Anyway, I guess I'd recommend, but get ready to be confused and annoyed. And not by the subject matter which is actually quite accessible.

An Introduction to Radio Astronomy (1997) targets astronomy graduate students and others committed professionally to radio astronomy. The authors - two noted radio astronomers, Bernard F. Burke and Francis Graham-Smith - also hope to interest optical astronomers and others who want to be informed of the principal ideas current in radio astronomy, and may even be thinking of carrying out radio observations that would complement other work in progress.

With a background in geophysics, I did not always find An Introduction to Radio Astronomy to be easy going, but most topics were not out of reach. That is, readers with some background in physics, electrical engineering, and/or signal processing will find substantial familiar ground, including electromagnetics, thermodynamics, Fourier analysis, and spectral analysis. I give five stars to this not-so-easy, self-contained, advanced introduction to radio astronomy.

I found the first six chapters (about 80 pages) to be the most challenging, perhaps due to my limited familiarity with radio telescopes. Key topics included radio telescopes as antenna, signal detection and noise, single-aperture radio telescopes, the two-element interferometer, and aperture synthesis.

Chapter 7 - the absorption, amplification, refraction, and attenuation of radio waves - addresses radiative transfer, astrophysical masers, radio propagation through ionized gas, Faraday rotation of polarized waves, scintillation (radio amplitude variations akin to the optical twinkling of stars), and radio propagation in the earth's atmosphere. Take your time with this chapter as the authors frequently return to these topics.

The remaining nine chapters offer a wide-ranging review of the radio universe and are more immediately accessible to a wider audience. The chapter titles are Galactic Continuum Radiation, The Interstellar Medium (ISM), Galactic Dynamics, Stars, Pulsars, Radio Galaxies and Quasars, Cosmology and the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), Cosmology: Discrete Radio Sources and Gravitational Lenses, and The Place of Radio in Astronomy.

Two Suggestions: I strongly urge the reader to stay the course with the first seven chapters as the later chapters require a basic understanding of radio observation methodologies, antenna temperature, radio brightness temperature, non-thermal radiation, 21 centimeter radiation, bremsstrahlung emission spectra, etc.

Also, a reader that is relatively new to radio astronomy will find it helpful to read at an early stage the three appendices: Appendix 1 - a concise review of Fourier transforms, intended as a review, not as a self-tutorial, Appendix 2 - a general overview of celestial coordinates , distance, and time, and Appendix 3 - a fascinating account of the origins of radio astronomy (1932 -1954).

This book is a great Radio Astronomy text for the undergraduate major or the graduate level. It is a little advanced for most of my students....

I just love using the magnetic energy of the earth instead of magnets for healing, and even had the rings made for me. I've been wearing them for over 10 years now. this is one of those books that I loaned out, never got back, and can't remember who I loaned it to anymore. am so thankful to have found it once again...

An amazing book that has well explained techniques for body healing. I have had success with relieving pain/headaches of friends and family with these techniques. Deals with life force and the channelling of this to promote health. If you ever read this Abbot Burke please write another book filled with your insights.

If you're looking for a book on magnets for healing DON'T BUY THIS BOOK. The title is misleading. It is basically about Touch Therapy which is a valid healing art but the title leads one to believe it's about magnets and magnetic healing. The only reference to magnetic healing is "don't do it."

We really enjoyed reading and learning the new aspects of magnetic therapy. It was easy to understand and full of great applications.

An amazing book that has well explained techniques for body healing. I have had success with relieving pain/headaches of friends and family with these techniques. Deals with life force and the channelling of this to promote health. If you ever read this Abbot Burke please write another book filled with your insights.

These frank stories speak about men who have lost unborn issue to abortion. The fact that the unborn have fathers, and not just mothers, is generally ignored and lost in the public policy debate. These men came together in this book and gave themselves and millions of others a voice usually unheard. Well done, readable, moving book for any person who's been affected by the subject.

I have to admit it is difficult for me to pan this book only because I am very sympathetic to the intended audience and to some degree the author's efforts. However, the content of this book really was nothing more than a regurgitated Bible Study based on a pattern already in use by many other books for people who have been involved with abortion before. I had already participated in a group based around one such book that was more well written than this one. Group participation is much more important than simply reading a study outline. Perhaps for a man who hasn't been exposed to any other material on the subject, is firmly rooted in an American Christian experience, yet who hasn't engaged in a long search of the scriptures for answers he may have about a past abortion, this book will provide some help. Had the book truly stuck to a discussion of the effects a past abortion has on some men it would have been far less disappointing.

Regrettably this book offers an easy target for the hard line Pro-Choice evangelists to point to as being "religious fanatics with ulterior motives enforcing a particular brand of morality." The book undercuts the very common and genuinely human experience of loss produced as a consequence of abortion by treating it within such a narrow context as it does. For me personally, I'm sure that any man, regardless of religious background, nationality or political persuasion, shares in a common experience of loss that sharpens common values, and unites them in a better destiny. May I say "we" are very reluctant to share publicly our experience when it is treated either as a political tool or dismissed with cynicism. I hope to see more sympathetic and compassionate titles directed to men on this topic in the future. Sadly, I would not recommend this book to any men who might need profound understanding on this topic.

Redeeming a Father's Heart is a refreshing; much needed Welcome Mat for men to feel invited to be a part of the whole abortion journey. Many men don't feel welcome to be a part of the pre-abortion decision-making, or the post-abortion healing process because they are told it's not their body. Thanks to Kevin Burke, Redeeming a Father's Heart is a wonderful support for men who want to be more involved but just need some encouragement. and a reminder that there are others out there.

This well written book tells about abortion from the man's viewpoint. Men do certainly have feelings and opinions about abortion. Every story shared by each man took courage to tell. If you have had an abortion in your life or know someone that has had one, this book should open your eyes. If you have not been involved with anyone that is post-abortive, this is a must book to gain insight into the real feelings. The struggles that men go through! I applaud the writer of each and every bit of sharing he has done. Thank you to the authors of these experiences. It's encouraging to know there is help for the post-abortive men and women--and there are millions of them!

This little book is a valuable insight into the man's perspective on loosing a child to abortion, whether he coerced the abortion, assumed a neutral stance on the abortion, pleaded for his child's life, or married a woman who is post-abortive. Nothing tells it like it is, except the men who lived it.

Women will find that perhaps the man they might despise because of an abortion are just as human and frail and ultimately as hurt as they themselves may be.

Great stories, from start to the healing.

After years of looking for a book with spanish slang with no limitations, I have found it! After picking up the basics back in Spain, I wanted to know more, and nearly drove myself crazy looking for a book on it! It has some great illustrations, has practically all the slang you could need, rude or not, and has all the spanish variations such as Cuban, Chilean, Argentinian etc. For me, I think it's brill! But then again, I'm an enthusiast, and after all this time....I've found it. Even so, it's good for a giggle, good for a reference, and for using against your non-spanish speaking mates!

Idiomatic structures are often difficult to translate, so a student of Spanish will usually attempt to interpret an idiom in a literal sense by translating the words separately instead of as a single unit, since without special training it is not easy to recognise a Spanish idiom when it crops up, consequently leading to erroneous, nonsensical renditions. However, Street Spanish 2 bridges that gap by providing the necessary tools to deal with this problem efficiently, showing how to avoid those embarrassing situations.

This self-study guide contains an abundance of universally popular idioms compacted into each chapter, which represent what you would normally learn if you were living in a Spanish speaking country for a number of years trying to cope with the finer intricacies and colloquial expressions that form the backbone of everyday spoken Spanish.

Each of the 10 chapters includes about 20 or more idioms in every dialogue, providing a challenge that compels you to examine the imaginative and expressive techniques used to communicate ideas and thoughts effectively. To be truly proficient in this language it is not only necessary to recognise idioms, but to have a clear understanding of their usage also, as these structures are widely utilized in movies, magazines and by native speakers. The course material is designed to allow the student to acquire this vital knowledge quickly, since it provides the key that unlocks the mystery behind mastering street Spanish successfully. I would therefore recommend this book to anyone desirous of expanding their knowledge of this popular language.

(Having the cassettes, which are not part of the package, would be an added bonus since you would hear the dialogues being spoken by natives of Mexico, Cuba, Argentina, Peru, Puerto Rico and Colombia, providing a better feel for the language, its speech patterns and the varying pronunciations).

This is a good book for learning street Spanish. It is nice to have 2 translations, both literal and the actual english. But I was surprised at how many translation errors there were. On numerous occassions, the english translation is incorrect. One would figure they would get a better editor.

This book should be part of a student's essential reference material collection. Idioms are difficult to grasp in any language and Spanish is no exception. This resource has many of the most commonly heard idioms in day to day speech and those learning Spanish must eventually learn the meaning and use them when speaking Spanish. Understanding and learning fixed expressions authenticates one's usage of the language and brings an individual one step closer to native competency. I seriously recommend this resource for Beginners and Intermediate level students. For advance speakers I think a more challenging resource would be more beneficial to their development in the language. I recommend the McGraw-hill Diccionario del Argot: El Sohez for advance level students.

This book is so important to the field of Spanish education that I'd recommend it to anyone attempting to develop fluency in Spanish. Business people, doctors, teachers, or travelers can all benefit from this book. As a teacher of Spanish, I've observed that one of the most difficult challenges for students is making sense of the idioms. This book is the ultimate remedy! It provides clear, concise definitions and examples that will ultimately make the difference between being good and being fluent.

If you are a Big Brooke Burke fan, I highly recommend this calender!!
She's HOT!! in every photo. Also, its her last calender shoot. After the year is over you still will have Brooke around for ever. I give this calender 4 1/2 stars.

I bought this for my father for christmas, he loves it--haha...he shows it to everyone that comes in our house. He loves the photos in it, so if you know a brooke burke fan i highly recommend this.

My husband loves his Brooke Burke Calendars and has been getting them for years. How sad if this is truly her last year. Great looking!

The images are what they call "best of" I was hoping for something new, not recycled pictures from the past few calanders.

Book was received right away. It was a new copy, but the print on some of the pages is too light to read.

While the subject is quiet interesting, the book is poorly written and edited. The author keeps on repeating himself over and over and over and over again. And again. One is reminded of college papers where a student is stretching a 2 page point over 10 pages to fulfill the length requirement, constantly restating the same thought with synonymous nouns and adjectives. Could have been a much more fun 150 page read with some good editing, or a great 10 page New Yorker article. The book does improve in the second half.

I got to "meet" Fred Lebow and learn about his creation of the New York City Marathon and his impact on the world of distance running while working with author Ron Rubin's extensive material. "Fred Lebow was a dreamer...the kind of dreamer who pursued his dream and made it a reality. And today, more than thirty years later, the world is still reaping the rewards of his vision and hard work.... Fred Lebow's life was [truly] a story just waiting--and deserving--to be told." -- From the book's Preface.

Exactly what Fred's vision was and how he worked to bring it to fruition--the history of the marathoning culture as we know it today--is developed in the first 11 chapters of the book.

> According to KATHRINE SWITZER, who knew Lebow well:
"Lebow's lifetime creation, the New York City Marathon, parallels his life story, and nobody's told it better than Ron Rubin in 'Anything for a T-Shirt...'. Rubin shows us how this modest but complex man, who was himself exhilarated with the transforming effects of fitness, took an obscure footrace and turned it into an extravagant festival that brought joy to the world's most glamorous and competitive city and attracted millions of everyday people to distance running. It is a case study in sports marketing, event management and psychology..."

The remainder of the book is dedicated to the heartwarming story of Lebow's struggle with cancer and his momentous first running of his own marathon in 1992 -- a cancer survivor accompanied by a host of friends led by Grete Waitz.

> SWITZER's review of these final chapters states:
"The book's climax is superb, reeling the reader up very dramatically, day by day, then mile by mile. Rubin pulls no punches as to how Fishl-the name I always called him and the one he would return to before he died-ran in his own creation for the first time, between bouts with the brain cancer that eventually took him from us, on guts and will. 'Anything' paints a vivid picture of Lebow's inherent survival determination, heard from a dozen concerned voices in his entourage. While the whole book is well-written, this chapter is dazzling."

As Dick Traum wrote in his amazon review, "If you run, read this book!" As a non-runner who had never heard of Fred Lebow before working with the book, I can add:

"EVEN IF YOU DON'T RUN, read this book." I came to know both Fred & Fishl through the eyes of the 120-plus people Dr. Rubin interviewed and the numerous authors of articles and stories written during Lebow's illustrious life and in his memory. His life is an uplifting story of hope and inspiration.

Everything I've heard so far indicates that this book is truly the inspiring, motivating & heartwarming tribute to Fred Lebow that Ron Rubin set out to create. A relatively non-athletic, academic-type university professor, Rubin is himself one of the millions of middle- and back-of-the-pack runners who would have never considered attempting a marathon had it not been for Lebow's "creation." He wound up running NY six times!

I look forward to reading what YOU think -- about my review and about the book!

"ANYTHING for a T-Shirt" captures Fred's character as an artist might do with a brush and paint. While describing Fred's life, the author delves into his motivation and goals. He skillfully shows how Fred Lebow, an immigrant from Romania, progresses to developing the most exciting mass participation sporting event in the world.

If you run, read this book! This is the best book ever written on Fred Lebow and marathon running.