Burns Books

I live on the beach and have always wondered why there is so much garbage and why there seems to be more now than 10 years ago. This not only explains it all, but provides photographs and maps that make it all make sense. I know this is geared to a younger audience, but who has the patience to wade through volumes just to find out why our coastlines are so full of trash? Why we can't stay on top of it and why we continue to find dead sea life on the shores. What we are doing to our environment is horrible, but this book puts it into a quick read. I have a hotel and every guests manages to read this book. I would make it the equivalent of watching a documentary on the subject - a little entertaining and a lot of knowledge in a couple of hours. It's great coffee table conversation too.

While published for children, 'Tracking Trash' is definitely readable by all, and is especially poignant for anyone who thinks that trash/litter just eventually disappears. The discovery of a floating garbage dump in the ocean the size of Alaska attests to the contrary. A few years ago I had a sudden realization myself at how dependent we are on plastics. Look around you right now: What isn't made of plastic? It's astounding. Two facts that will stick with me: No organism on earth can digest plastic, and plastic doesn't naturally break down into anything - except smaller pieces of plastic.

This book seems to be geared towards junior high kids and not adults. Large print big color photos. It goes into explaining what a container van is. I thought it would have more scientific data and less fluff. A good book for the younger crowd.

Tracking Trash is the story of Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer who studies the movement of ocean currents. Dr. Ebbesmeyer's work has attracted attention because he has received much of his information from studying trash. It all began when his mother heard about sneakers that were washing up on a beach after a cargo ship lost one of its containers. Since then, he has tracked sneakers, Lego's, and even rubber duckies that have been accidentally spilled at sea and made their way to shore. By understanding how ocean currents move, scientists hope to solve many problems such as fish shortages and animals being caught in fishing nets. This book was very enjoyable to read and easy to understand. The pictures were large and engaging. The author did a great job at making it feel like a story while at the same time giving a lot of scientific information.

"Mr. Thompson calls the waiter, orders steak and baked potater
But he leaves the bone & gristle & he never eats the skins.
Then the bus boy comes & takes it, with a cough contaminates it
As he puts it in a can with coffee grounds & sardine tins.
Then the truck comes by on Friday & carts it all away
And a thousand trucks just like it are converging on the bay."

Perhaps the dumping of garbage into the bay is not quite as blatant today as it was back in 1969 when Bill Steele wrote his eco-ditty, "Garbage," but it seems that today's never-ending flow of plastic garbage into the oceans is of more dire and destructive consequence to the oceans' long-term survival than anything they've previously faced. This is one of the conclusions to be drawn from the fascinating and important TRACKING TRASH: FLOTSAM, JETSAM, AND THE SCIENCE OF OCEAN MOTION.

Who knew that beachcombers kept meticulous logs of their finds or that they actually held conventions? Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer who began his widely-publicized work with ocean currents and tracking trash when his mom asked him to figure out why hundreds of sneakers had begun washing up on beaches near Seattle, has uncovered significant clues through his ongoing communications with beachcombers. We learn in TRACKING TRASH that there are slight changes year to year in the oceans' currents and that projections of those current flows is now a well-refined science whose origins harken back to scientific work by Benjamin Franklin.

The first part of TRACKING TRASH is especially entertaining to read. Huge cargo containers periodically fall from enormous cargo ships in big storms. The cargo gets loose and takes off with the currents. Many readers will be amused by the thought of eighty thousand Nike sneakers drifting eastward in the currents, of twenty-nine thousand rubber duckies and froggies bobbing merrily along, or of five million LEGO pieces breaking loose in the middle of the Atlantic. But the incidents of lost cargo are a drop in the bucket; they're less than one-fifth of the problem. The remainder, the more serious story, is of large quantities of garbage -- so much of it plastic-based -- getting flushed out of rivers and bays into the sea.

Having fond memories of creating "whirlpools" with friends in little backyard swimming pools, it is not surprising to learn that when a stream of indestructible plastic garbage is continually dumped into the ocean, it will eventually come together in a big bobbing mass surrounded by circulating currents. What is impressive (or, more likely, alarming and depressing) is that a so-called Garbage Patch in the Pacific is now as big as the state of Alaska and estimated to be composed of the accumulation of six BILLION pounds of plastic this, plastic that, and plastic everything else.

"What happens to this plastic trash during the decades it floats around the Garbage Patch? Not much, because plastic is one of the most indestructible materials on the planet. This is one of the reasons we find it so useful. Plastic is found in everything, from the toys we play with to the plates we eat from, the cars we drive, and even the clothes we wear.
"Unfortunately, the very property that makes plastic a useful material for all these items makes it virtually impossible to get rid of. There is no organism anywhere on the planet that can digest plastic. A long exposure to sunshine, wind,, and waves will eventually break plastic objects into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic, but those small pieces are still made entirely of indestructible, indigestible plastic.

And when birds and marine mammals get mixed up with all of this plastic they die.

"Bottle caps and disposable lighters are seen in the carcasses of sea birds found on beaches from Hawaii to Washington. Apparently the birds are mistaking floating plastic for food. Many of these birds die of starvation because the plastic filling their stomachs can be neither digested nor excreted. Discarded fishing nets and other fishing gear can tangle and drown fish, sea turtles, seals, and other animals. Experts now estimate that the number of marine mammals in the Pacific Ocean that die each year due to plastic ingestion and net entanglement approaches 100,000."

This particular passage in the well-illustrated book is accentuated with a photo of a dead, rotting bird complete with the fifty-nine plastic pieces that were stuck in its gut.

The immediate solution? Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. If plastic bags are so indestructible, then I shouldn't take one unless I'm going to reuse it numerous times and then recycle it. Long term, there is no question that big changes must be made in terms of manufacturing and consuming so much petroleum-based plastic stuff.

"There's nothing left to watch & there's nothing left to touch
There's nothing left to walk upon & nothing left to talk upon
And nothing left to see & nothing left to be but Garbage!"

As with other books I've read in the Scientists in the Field series, TRACKING TRASH reveals the profiled scientists to be pretty cool people with extremely interesting jobs. It'll definitely inspire interest by readers in science.

I've been in the alternative health world for a long time so was very interested in perusing this book. I was pleasantly surprised how thorough and concise Alan Smith's book is. Concise, yet, full of very valuable and researched material, this book gives the reader glimpse into a variety of therapies available to enhance health.

I can see this book being of great importance to those entering the field of alternative health, or those wanting to know what alternative/complementary therapies are available and what they consist of. The options are plentiful and it doesn't look like Alan missed any.

Great resource, a must-have in the library, and informative, Alan gives the reader options to healing. Highly recommend.

This is the most comprehensive complete listing of alternative health approaches. I am very familiar with about a dozen listed and all were given a even balanced write up. Well done. A complete reference work. Achieving health without meds.

For some reason, I thought this was going to be more of a guide to help those of use with health problems instead of just a list of complementary and alternative therapies.

It wasn't that long ago that your family doctor was the only option when you were faced with health issues. You'd make an appointment and he'd prescribe a pill. If that magic pill didn't help you'd get another. Finally, given no other alternative, you'd just learn to live with your pain symptoms.

Today, it seems that more and more people are becoming open to complimentary and alternative health resources. Many are unhappy with their present care. Others are simply looking for ways to compliment their current treatments.

Although the actual methods vary substantially, most of these therapies look to the root cause of dis-ease and then seek to understand, release, or heal that issue. Still, the sheer number of options can be overwhelming for the average person. Where to even start?

In my opinion, reading UnBreak your Health is a very good way to begin. This book provides quite an extensive list of possible alternative and complementary therapies. Moreover, for each method, the author provides important contact information and comments from individuals who have actually tried the option.

Reviewed by Kam Aures for RebeccasReads (1/08)

"UnBreak Your Health: The Complete Guide to Complementary & Alternative Therapies" by Alan E. Smith presents a comprehensive guide useful for when you want to explore other options beyond traditional medicine. If you are considering complementary or alternative therapies you are not alone! According to a statistic presented in the introduction, in the year 2002 over half of all Americans turned to trying one of these therapies. Complementary and alternative therapies are positive on many levels. They focus on the fact that each person is a "unique individual composed of mind, body and spirit (or life-force energy)" and that each problem should be solved by tailoring the treatment to the specific person. Instead of focusing on the specific symptoms or issues as traditional medicine oftentimes does, complementary and alternative therapies often look at the body as a whole and work to heal the entire entity to make the body function in a more efficient manner. They go to the inner source of the problem rather than just treating the topical symptoms.

The author divides the different therapies up into three areas: the body, the mind and the energy/spirit. The "body" section presents an overview of such therapies from the familiar like chiropractic care and massage to the lesser known like Emei Qigong and the Nambudripdad Allergy Elimination Technique. The "mind" chapter focuses on therapies such as Art Therapy, Guided Imagery, Hypnosis, and Traumatic Incident Reduction. Finally, the "energy/spirit" section focuses on therapies which use human energy to heal such as Acupuncture, Crystal Bowl Therapy, Polarity Therapy and Qi Gong.

Each therapy examined in the book has a description explaining the origins, beliefs and techniques used in the method. After most descriptions is a favorite part of mine called "user comments" which aids in understanding how effective these therapies are. These are comments from actual users of these particular methods. It is very interesting to see the results that these people have had using the different techniques. This section makes the book more personable instead of strictly a reference guide. Websites are listed for most therapies if readers would like to seek out more information or specifics.

I recommend this thorough guide to complementary and alternative therapies to anyone who is frustrated with conventional medicine's approach to his health issues or to anyone who just wants to educate himself as to what is out there in terms of non-traditional care. "UnBreak Your Health: The Complete Guide to Complementary & Alternative Therapies" presents so many different options and techniques, some of which I never knew existed, and the information is presented in a very reader friendly and easy to use way.

I'm on the fence here. One reviewer thought that it was way too basic. And no, I would not attempt to install a pumped water system in my cabin based on this info solely. On the other hand, I learned TONS of things, seriously. I mean TONS. I also learned (big time) what my options are and "how these things work." There is a WONDERFUL appendix in the back containing the contact info for all kinds of suppliers, which I found very valuable. In fact, I would be pretty comfortable building a small grey water drainage system or something simple. The one thing I was dissappointed about is this - We plan to use hauled water and roof drainage in a cistern, and there is absolutely nothing about that in the book anywhere. Still, I enjoyed it.

If you are going to buy one, and only one book about maintaining a cottage water and sewer system, this is it. The definitive bible on how to keep everything working. Supplemented with excellent illustrations and drawings, Cottage Water Systems is indispensable. About the only criticism we have is that there could be a few more options for pump hook-ups and that some of the addresses are out of date. But all-in-all, this is a truly outstanding book worth the money.

Gave me the knowledge to troubleshoot my existing system, and build a better one. One that is economical, and environmentally friendly.

An excellent book that covers in detail all the aspects of water required at a cottage or remote site. The manner of writing is excellent and manages to make what could have been a deadly boring topic, quite interesting. I can't imagine a book on this subject being more informative or presented in a better style

This book is a glossy generalists dream. If you don't know what a well is, buy this book. If you don't know what a septic tank is, buy this book. If you can't tell the difference between a submrsible pump or a jet pump, buy this book.

If you want to design or install your own hideaway water system, forget it. The author makes to frequent use of "consult your owners manual", "local authorities" or "hire someone" to have any real value.

This book would benefit the rural homeowner who has never owned a well, septic, etc. and needs to talk with a repair service. It would be unadvisable to attempt installation or repair of any system with knowledge gained from just this book.

This variation to the classic log cabin design is beautiful. As always Eleanor's instructions are clear, detailed and percise. She offers yardage and instructions for wallhanging, twin, full, queen/king and this is not always the case with other books. Also included are examples are the many ways to configure the blocks once they are sewn. The instructions are written step by step with diagrams the whole way through, plus tips. The book also includes iron on patterns for making the triangle pieces as well as instructions for penciling your own triangles.

I am a beginner quilter and made the regular log cabin pattern a few years ago. Star log cabin is definitely a step up in difficulty but completely do-able with the instructions in this book. I just completed the wall hanging and couldn't be happier with the outcome!

This is a great step by step book with good diagrams....i would suggest it to anyone, especially beginners...easy instructions, nicely laid out in the book. The price is right too!

This is an excellent book with clear step-by-step instructions for the novice quilter. THe instructions are very easy to follow and the result is a superb quilt, which is quick and easy to make. A few more colour pictures of the finished pattern would have been useful, as would pictures of the process rather than line diagrams, but overall another winner for the series.

This is a beautiful quilt when finished. As always, Eleanor Burns has great techniques to follow in this book.

The log cabin is for beginners, and this a great one. I'm an experienced quilter and, even so, I love Eleanor's clear instructions on what to do next and her ability to walk you through the process. The charts, descriptions, and diagrams are first rate. I loved making this quilt in twin size. One thing: If you're making either Field & Furrows or Mountains layout, don't cut out two strips of the lattice and sew them together. Cut one 3.5" wide for each lattice since you'll be using the same color. (that tip isn't mentioned in the book)

I bought it as a gift for my sister. She's graduating psychology on the subject of burnout. She said the book was very useful.

tretise on what most of us already know about bureauracracies. I've not finished reading the "what to do about it." yet, but already know my first questions when contemplating a new job will be "How many people were fired or quit in the past 6-9 months?"

"The Truth about Burnout" was written a decade ago, but its analysis and recommendations may be more valid today than they were when the book was published. The first couple of chapters are a bit tedious, but the book takes off once the authors start digging into causes of burnout and laying out ways to overcome burnout.

The authors describe the causes of burnout in terms of six mismatches between people and their jobs: "work overload, lack of control, insufficient reward, breakdown in community, absence of fairness, and conflicting values." These six mismatches provide a framework for developing interventions to address burnout and build employee engagement.

For me, the most encouraging feature of the book is the authors' suggestion that the intervention can be bottom up as well as top down. The authors provide roadmaps for both kinds of intervention.

Christina Maslach is well-known in psychology as the person who has championed the problem of burnout over more than two decades. For quite a time she was something of a lone voice.

Burnout is a prolonged response to chronic physical, emotional and interpersonal stressors at work, leading to exhaustion, cynicism and inefficacy. In a memorable term the authors describe it as erosion of the soul.

Burnout has to be seen in the larger organizational context of people's relationship with their work: it's usually the job and the organization rather than the individual, although there are clearly differences in individuals' resilience to burnout.

There are many symptoms of burnout, including trouble sleeping, constantly worrying, feeling unappreciated or "used" at work and feeling less effective or competent. Many people find that they easily becoming angry or irritated and altogether too many start drinking or abusing other substances.

Burnout is immensly costly, not just for individuals, but also for organizations. I agree with another reviewer who lamented the paucity of data on just how costly burnout is to a company's bottom line. But judging by the number of corporations now asking epxerts to go in and help them deal with the burnout problem, I think that the message is getting through.

This is an excellent overview of the problem nearly ten years ago. If anything, the situation is becoming worse, and Maslach, and now an expanding band of other psychologists has continued to do empirical research on the problem, and have been coming up with ever more sophisticated solutions.

But even with the passage of time, this book remains highly recommended.

Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter's groundbreaking book debunks myths about burnout and holds organizations accountable for this epidemic, which has swept the work world. The authors detail how organizations can treat and prevent burnout, and take a critical look at its deep-rooted causes, including lack of engagement and conflict between employees' values and their jobs. Conversationally and with great impact, the authors support their points and suggestions. We recommend this book to executives, managers and employees. Now go home and get some rest.

I was looking through the book section for books on asset allocation and stumbled across this book. This book is a new way to look at asset "dedication" (can't say allocation, that is taboo in this book) The jist of this book is to define a lump sum goal dollar amount for retirement. You'll use this lump sum in addition to what you think you'll receive annually from Social Security and pension and whatever else. You'll then use this total amount of money to determine an annual amount that you can withdraw and live comfortably with until the grim reaper shows up.

For example, you are 45, you have $100,000 saved in your 401K, you retire when you are 65. You determine that when you retire at 65 you'll need $40,000 per year after you receive $20,000 year from Social Security and $12,000 from your pension to live comfortably. You project that you will live until 90 years old. So, to acheive a $40,000 income stream from age 65 until 90, you will need $800,000 in your 401K when you hit 65 (This isn't the actual number, just a very rough estimate). When you hit 65, you'll use whatever portion of the $800,000 you saved to create a T-Bill ladder to ensure that you'll guarantee that $40,000/yr income stream for a predetermined horizon (say 10 years) and then place the remainder of your retirement money in stocks (for a hopefully better return). While you are receiving your bond income plus the principal from the annually maturing T-Bills, your stocks should be making an average of 10 - 12% over the same period. In a rolling horizon scenario, you annually roll the 10 year T-bills while slowly eroding your stock principal as necessary to maintain your desired, predetermined annual income of $40,000. If you did all the numbers right on the initial plan and you croak "on time as predicted (90yo in the example)" you should end up with zero $$$ or whatever amount you decided to leave for your heirs.

I gazed thru the book initially and thought it looked a little dry but the harder I looked at it, I found it was packed with great ideas and approaches to retirement I hadn't thought of such as "Once you reach your target retirement amount, don't let greed get the best of you, sell your stocks and take your target retirement amount that you luckily reached and start rolling it in T-Bill ladders" For example, if you hit $800,000 goal before age 65, say age 60, keep building your 401K account but lock in your "winnings" by T-Billing all $800,000 for safety from a market collapse at an inopportune time. Sounds simple but it is effective. There are a bunch of other interesting ideas that I found useful too.

This book isn't the holy grail but does have a lot of valuable info.

My apologies to the author if I didn't get the mechanics of the system exactly right....

This is the best personal investment book for people who are careful with their hard earned money. Asset Dedication principle addresses the needs for emergency funds, steady income and the opportunity to growth your wealth. Most importantly the investors are the one who set the benchmarks and the principle is being put into practice by a growing number of certified personal financial planners.

Huxley and Burns support the strategy with extensive research. They provide evidence to show how the asset allocation formulas used by brokerage houses provide inconsistent results at best and on average lag behind portfolio build with asset dedication. They explained clearly why active management usually hurts your investment. And they provide data to show how poorly the main brokerage houses did with their asset allocations during the 1990's.

Asset Dedication principle is simple and easy to understand. The book gives options for readers to achieve different financial goals. Best of all, the authors also introduce "Critical Path" concept for readers to manage their investments to make sure they are on target to reach their goals.

Those who want to do more research can visit the website that support the book (they can read more about market timing study and maximum sustainable withdrawals). People can test various scenarios for their own asset dedication strategies. It even has a simply Monte Carlo element.

I highly recommend this book to people who want to think for themselves and their families.

This book is well written and really changes the way you think about asset allocation. The book shows in many ways how the traditional asset allocation model of x % bond funds, y % stock funds may not be the best way to allocate assets. Instead, using some basic math investors should consider a laddered portfolio of bonds so that the stock portion of the investor's portfolio has time to grow. This strategy overcomes the inevitable ups and downs of the stock market by increasing the holding period for the stocks.

I have begun using the Asset Dedication principles with my clients. It is easy for uneducated investors to understand the concepts. It provides for them the guareenteed security (using Treasury Bonds) that their income is provided for years ahead. The Asset Dedication website guides me in selecting an efficient bond ladder portfolio for each client's needs.

I look forward to using the "rolling" bond ladder in years ahead when interest rates are hopefully higher to create an even more efficient portfolio.

Client used to leave an appointment "hoping" that their selection of Bonds vs. Stocks proportions was appropriate. Now they walk away saying that they have a certain number of years of income set aside and are therefore comfortable with the volatility of the growth portion of their portfolios. They are comfortable because we have "bought time" which is an essential ingredient to growth.

Asset Dedication strikes a new note in personal financial planning. It makes sense that many brokers try to keep financial planning murky so that uninformed investors will buy their sales pitch and brokers continue to profit from the commissions. No doubt it will raise the hackles of many brokers who rely on investor ignorance to earn their living, and those with a vested interest in the status quo will no doubt take every opportunity to discredit the book. To the public, I urge you to read this book and learn it for yourself before solely relying on "professional's" advice.

Based on the principle of dedicated portfolios, which institutions have used for years, asset dedication provides a rationale for a specific allocation of funds to stocks, bonds and cash based on their time horizon. Enough bonds are purchased to provide a secure income stream over the horizon. For anyone who bothers to read past the first 30 pages, they will find that although a fixed horizon of, say, ten years, is one option, investors would likely be more comfortable with "rolling" horizons. In a rolling horizon plan, they buy a new bond at the end of each year (or so) to extend the stream of secured income another year (or so) and keep the horizon at a constant ten years. Even more compelling is the fact that when compared to the stale asset allocation formulas, the dedication strategy ends up beating portfolios with 70 percent or less in stocks most of the majority of time (back to 1926).

The chapters on the "critical path" are extremely informative. They explain how a person can monitor their portfolio to make sure it is on track to meet their goals without getting worried about market volatility. The fresh ideas and empirical evidence based on research in this book set it apart from the hundreds of tired asset allocation books that add little to what is already known. This book breaks new ground and may be only the first in a long line of new studies on asset dedication. It deserves its five star rating.

Tim Burn's is a "regular" American kid who grew up in a "normal" American town but exploded into adolescents and adulthood. In a wake of drugs, drinking and wilding he left his mark everywhere he went. Tim writes his story with passion and brutal honesty. You get to go along on an incredible drug induced trip that spans decades. Most people will never know the places and people Tim encounters as he tells you the story of a fallen soul who was plucked out of Hell and saved by the Holy Spirit. While reading the book I just prayed for Tim, his wife, his family and his friends and I continue to pray for the lost souls that wonder our world. Be warned this journey could take you where you might not want to go but know there is always hope. Stay strong Tim!

This book had me hooked from beggining to end. Tim Burns has lived an utterly crazy yet fascinating life. I would recommend this book for anyone, particularly those who struggle with substance abuse and anyone who is interested in Chritian conversions. Tim Burns journey to Catholicism is riveting; his "escape from LA" is most harrowing, like a real life experience of the movie Dark City.

I have just finished reading the book "A BOY FROM CAPE COD" by Tim Burns. This true story shows God at work despite all the obstacles & shows no matter how far down we go, there is always hope. This book can be of great help to anyone who is presently in the same situation.
It held my interest from beginning to end.

It is also Great book for those suffering from any addiction. It shows how things can change for the better, no matter how many bad things happen. So many lives are in turmoil these days but there is always hope. This couple chose the right direction which gave them a new meaning in life. By going through these trials they are now able to help others.
This book is a MUST READ!!!

A very fascinating book recounting a life in the decadent world of LA where Mr Burns meets the basest musicians, strippers and addicts.

Burns is not running a multimillion-dollar mega-church, and it wasnt like he fell into religion due to his family or as a con game. I would venture something spectacular made him do a 180 turn away from the hedonistic lifestyle, especially since he had had no religious education in the past.

In the book, Tim Burns publishes his criminal records, copies of the bachelors degree he later got (which got him a job in the record industry) and about 1,000 photos with various music stars and actors in LA and Hollywood. He got himself out of poverty with an education, and then got a dream job which paid great, but lost that to addictions.

He did see pimps and organized crime activity in that he was selling drugs and around those people. He published photos of people around him who died mysteriously and due to drugs and crime.

The psychological assessment Tim publishes that was done on him in jail lists him as potentially having had a drug induced psychosis. However his wife was not arrested or assesed and she swears she sw this. Nobody can back up his allegations on satanic activity in LA. He and his future wife believed they saw it. It is a fact that LA is a popular place for the sex industry.

Even if you have no interest in the Christian or paranormal aspect, it's an intense tale about life in the fast lane and then destruction of addiction.

Mr. Burns was a music industry insider, and a minor criminal and drug addict. One day he and his future-wife (then a stripper girlfriend) became born-again Catholic Christians and abandoned drugs and LA forever.

Tim and his wife now run a non-profit ministry to get kids off drugs and out of the sex industry.

This book kept me hooked from beginning to end. Well written and absolutely unbelievable yet based on real life events experienced by the author. The book tells an amazing story of a boy who breaks into the coveted music industry in LA and gets caught up in the LA drug culture. The details of the dredges of the LA drug culture are so scary and real with real world evidence to support the facts. After finishing the book, I was watching everyone for weeks! This book is meant for just about any reader that wants to read a great story of ultimate survival. Way to go Tim!

Oh, what a wonderful, lovely, loving little book by Melissa Miller. I had loved George Burns and Gracie Allen since I was a child, and continued to follow George right up to the end. This was the absolute last book about George Burns left that I hadn't read and was a bit suspicious, no matter how many nice things he'd said about Ms. Miller. She's about 4 years younger than me and initially reminded me of a number of young women I knew in the San Fernando Valley in the 60's, star-struck, shallow and generally very untalented. I had also seen them on television and was outraged anyone would try to replace Gracie. Boy was I wrong! She is a loving, sincere, caring individual with a mind of her own (a very good mind Melissa no matter what you've said), and deeply aware of life and those around her. She was a young woman who loved George Burns as well as Gracie did I believe.

The book also gave me, once again, proof that George Burns and the great, great Jack Benny were the two finest men who ever graced the stage or screen. Being able to read about George's private live with Melissa was the final and best ending to my reading of his life. Melissa, thank you from the bottom of my heart, and God bless you for how well you loved and cared for my hero.

Now I understand why my teacher was so demented

really fascinating... Didn't fall asleep once....Must read.... find the food stuff of George burns..and my teacher.......LOYOLA HIGH SCHOOL

Melissa Miller's account of her life with her "G.B." is right on. Her love for George leaps right off the page. As a friend of George, Miss Miller has the sweetness of the man down pat. Thank you Lisa for an honest account of a fine man and one of our centuries great entertainers. To parphrase George, "Love IT Kid!" So did I.

Robert Howe Oakdale,CA Scripts360@aol.com

I was a member of the group Lisa mentions, "The Kids Next Door", back in 1968; I think I may even see my teenaged face in the shadows in one photograph taken of she and George Burns at the Palmer House in Chicago. George had us on the floor laughing backstage, night after night, with his anecdotes about his friendship with Jack Benny and his practical jokes...Melissa Miller has contributed a warm, touching and delightful book to the Burns legacy; I recommend it to everyone who loved this legendary comic actor.

A sci-fi book with good character development and enough mystery to prevent you from putting the book down. The intense character development and backflashses slowed the book down, but it's a quick and easy read. Good, strong ending, if a bit predictable.

I found the concept of Bergmann Surgeons quite intriguing, that the "ghost" pains of an amputated limb might be the clue to an extended realm of sensation and action.

This forms the basis of the complex and involving journey of Dr. Georgory Marchey back from his life of drunken escape to total involvement in his new world and friends.

I found the characters very strongly realized and I was kept up well beyond my usual bedtime as I read on to the the gripping and somewhat sentimental conclusion. (I actually had tears in my eyes - that's how sweet it was!). The evolution of Angel/Scylla and the relationship between her and Marchey pulled me onwards as did Marchey's mental combat with Brother Fist.

My gripes are few: I felt that the repetitive descriptions of Marchey's drinking were a bit heavy handed, and Brother Fists contribution to the total outcome seemed a bit simplistic.

Despite these qualms, I highly recommend this read to all who love seeing a GOOD idea worked out with strong characters who eventually triumph.

I enjoyed this book. I recommend it to anyone who liked Stardoc!

Dr. Georgory Marchey is a Bergmann Surgeon, an extremely talented physician who sacrificed his hands in order to do miracle surgery that saves lives no one else can save, but at at a terrible cost to both doctor and patient.

He is treated as a machine, and feared by all due to the strange nightmarish psychological effects of this new way of doing surgery. Now he drinks his life away as he is shipped from planet to planet like a piece of equipment at the whim of the powers that be.

Until he is abducted by an armored Angel, Scylla, and taken to be the personal physician to her psychotic master. This evil man has slowly and terribly transformed a small, isolated, peaceful religious colony into his own personal slice of Hell, with the conflicted Scylla, brainwashed since her childhood, as his unquestioning enforcer.
Will Marchey pull himself together in time to save the colony and Scylla?

Where can I start in describing this book?

Good characters? Check.

Good concept? Check.

Good ending? Check.

The author resists the impulse to make the story too heavy-handed, and the characters are idealists that don't always suceed just because the plot demands that the good guys win. Although the good guys win, and man and woman are together, and the plot of the bad guys is foiled.

But along the way, we see that the characters are fallable. Not in that annoying anti-hero sort of way - that manages to triumph against all odds. In the way that you and I are fallable. In a way that sometimes, we overcome our failures and rise above them.

To look at the review, it would seem to be another story about another set of people that has a happy ending. While this is certainly true, I find that I lack the words to explain why I read this story as quickly as I could. Perhaps because it is balanced. Trying to put it into words makes the story seem weaker than it is.

Perhaps it is the simplicity that is appealing. A simple story about a man that overcomes his weakness. A man that crawls out of a bottle and makes something of his life. Perhaps not too plausible, perhaps a bit to neat and happy an ending, but certainly one that I read toward, and enjoyed.

And that's all one really needs to say about a book.

Buy it!

I got this book from the Chaplain's tent while I was deployed, and read it cover to cover as fast as I could. I immediately found his other book, Call From A Distant Shore, and read it just as hungrily. These books speak to the heart of heroism, the willingness to stand up after life knocks you down, and face the worst odds you can imagine, not for personal gain, because it's the right thing to do. These are both very satisfying reads, with intriguing characters and interesting worlds. I can't wait to read more from this author.

Like every American kid, I grew up knowing the names "Lewis and Clark." But (also, I suspect, like most American kids), I really knew (and cared) very little about their incredible journey, or why it was undertaken. Then, 10 years ago, I stumbled across Dayton Duncan's wonderful Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery, and I was hooked.

Duncan's book is a wonderful introduction to the Corps of Discovery (even the name itself is exciting, isn't it?) in that it offers information about the expedition without overwhelming the reader new to the topic, illustrates the text with fine photographs and reproductions, all of which are instructively captioned, contains a number of sideboxes and page-long essays on specializied subjects, and includes several essays from other Lewis and Clark authorities, including Ken Burns, who produced the companion film, and Stephen Ambrose.

Duncan ends the book with an essay, "We procceded on," that is as reflective a meditation on the deep meaning of the Corps of Discovery journey as I've read. It also serves as an excellent preface to another of his books, Out West, a fascinating and entertaining account of his recapitulation of the Corps of Discovery's route in a volkswagon camper.

If you're new to Lewis and Clark, this is the book to read. But it's also pure pleasure for afficionados.

The book is good and interesting (especially for someone with very little prior knowledge about the Corps), but the reading is absurd! He (I mean the narrator; the supporting cast is good) is so melodramatic as to be incredibly distracting. GOOFY. Only buy it if you are able to ignore the reader's voice and style; otherwise, order it in print form!

I've been looking for the audio version for a long time and found it easily on amazon. You can keep your eyes on the road and still learn something about the the most mindboggling journey in American history.
It makes me want to follow their trail (by road of course). Fantastic set of CD's

I enjoyed this book completely...it really gave me a sense of the human experience of the journey, and made me appreciate just what an incredible accomplishment it was. The illustrations really add to the enjoyment of the book, as do the excerpts from the journals of several of the men. I also liked the background information on what goals were actually behind the exploration and how they worked to meet those goals. There's only one reason that I didn't give this book 5 stars, and that's because it lacks a good map to help understand where they were during some of the events described. But that can be found in other works, and this really is a good introducion to Lewis and Clark...it's a relatively easy read but full of interesting facts and adventures.

This book was so hard to put down! The way the author combines the facts with the actual quotes from the Lewis and Clark journals (complete with spelling errors), the original sketches and descriptions by Lewis and Clark, old pictures and paintings, and the attention to the sequencing (i.e., he walks you straight through the entire journey and makes it flow) really makes this book come alive for me. I highly recommend it!!