Cheng Books

Jackie Chan has had a very eventful life. When he was a child he lived in on an ambassadors mansion in Hong Kong. Soon he was sent to a Cantonese Opera school, which was a boarding school where he was trained, day and night for over 10 years of his young life, in the ways of Chinese Opera. Chinese Opera is not the same Opera you and I may think of it as, but instead is a very acrobatic physically demanding show. He then went into the stuntman business, which was a very difficult road for him. For many years he struggled with finding work but he soon became a much wanted stuntman. Eventually he went into small acting parts, which led to bigger acting parts. Soon enough he was a huge success in Hong Kong, and eventually got married to a famous Chinese actress. Jackie still travels a lot and his wife is a stay at home wife who raises his son.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading. It is full of constant action and keeps your attention. I Am Jackie Chan is an easy read and fast paced I was unable to put it down, except of course when class was over.

I Am Jackie Chan My Life in Action 1998 5/5
Written by :Jackie Chan & Jeff Yang

Easily one of the best books I have ever read. This books contains 398 pages of pure joy. Seriously I read this book In one sitting . I was already a fan of Jackie Chan now I have so much respect for him. The copy I own includes a extra chapter, I would say it's worth buying again to read that extra chapter. Jackie Chan had a very interesting upbringing filled with beating and let downs. I mean he was abandoned by his parents who essentially sold him to the Peking Opera. Where they had the power to punish him up till death.

In here Jackie talks about the makings his earlier films. I really enjoyed this book as much as I enjoy his movies. Jeff Yang has said in interviews that there is works to release a second volume. Lets hope for that!

my wife's english is not good. but she found that it is very easy to understand this book as Jackie's movie. She has fun with it and use it to prove her english.

Dood tottally I'm not kidding, Jackie Chan is like a god amongst men, a god who makes flawed movies in his old age (flawed is polite considering the horrible movies he's currently putting out). Man Jackie Chan is so great it makes my balls sweat whenever I think about it, in this book he talks about how he and his crew broke into an amusement park to steal... not money but bread crumbs!!! Becuase Master wanted his students to work hard, this is not a book for weaklings, they will fret and feel weak as they learn of the heroic and disciplined exploits of my man JACKIE FING CHAN! Man in this book he talks about how some dudes wanted to fight, but he didn't cuase Master taught him only to fight for show and not fight for violence. Man the world would be a better place if we all had to read this book. Mandatory reading for High Schools this should be.

A fascinating insight into the mind and career of the world's biggest movie star. With exhaustive (and exhausting!) descriptions of Jackie's brutal Peking opera training and early days as a stuntman and actor, almost everything you want to know about Jackie is here.

Not that there aren't omissions - his illegitimate son Jaycee, now trying to make a name for himself as an actor, is never mentioned. Jackie is also quick to take credit (he claims 'Half a Loaf of Kung Fu' and 'Snake in the Eagle's Shadow' were the first kung fu comedies, which they weren't) and slow to give it out (he describes his opera brothers' film 'The Prodigal Son,' arguably the best kung fu movie ever made, as "solid"). But Jackie's charisma and determination shine through on every page, and you can't help but admire the guy. A must read for Jackie fans and aficionados of Hong Kong cinema.

I am so torn here. I love this book - my mother would love this book. So what's the problem? It's a feel good book that seems like it would better reach a new parent, a teen, or someone going through hard times better than a child.

The story clearly has a moral tale to convey. I tend to like that, and I love the message on diversity. Unfortunately, as far as plot/story, it falls short. It fails to go beyond just a morality lesson. And for this, it failed to captivate either of my children.

If the target audience are children: For lessons on friendship with story intact, try pumpkin soup. For a story about diversity and acceptance, try The Woman Who Outshone the Sun. For general moral tales - Zen Shorts.

this was a nice book on diversity. i think one of the things people get the most worked up over is spirituality. it's one of those things that can touch a person more deep than anything else, and everyone's perspective will differ, even if only minutely. wars have been started over the issue, and all because we're too pig headed and focused on our own validity. this book starts off with animals and rocks and trees each saying that what they think god is is indeed the true god, and that god seems to resemble the speaker. then the old turtle stops them and tell them of the coming of a new group, humans, and how they are supposed to be a message from god the the earth and a prayer from the earth to god. then people come and after while start to do not so nice things and nature says to stop. then the beings that said god was like themselves at the beginning of the book said they saw god in that which was opposite themselves. i guess the moral being have an open mind about that which is different from yourself, because it really isn't so alien to what you believe.

This book begins with the beings of nature having an argument as to who God is, an age old question. The old turtle speaks up and tells everyone to stop! And tells of a new being that will come and be in the likeness of god out of his love, humans. Then the humans start to argue and fight and destroy the earth. Till again the turtle said stop, and the people began to listen and realize the beauty they were destroying, the earth. The story is not specifically religious but more of a lesson of not to destoy what we have been blessed with. The illustrations are chinese watercolors and they are imaculate! Definately a must to add to your collection.

This is a book for children, but really is a lesson for mankind. Beautiful drawings. A good read out loud for children.Simply beautiful!

"Old Turtle" has become a tradition of giving in our family. When we recieve the announcement that a child has been born, we get a copy for the babe. We like to think that this is one of the ways this child will first hear about creation and our place in it. The illustrations are simple and exquisite, the narrative compelling. I'm a "big kid" and I love it.

This book is great for people who want to learn by themselves our with a teacher. It has real life situations and easy to learn. I recommend buying the textbook for more practice and the CD.

This book is very good, but there are not many to choose from. This was 3 quraters of classes.

Overall a good book!

I learned Japanese as a second language from the Genki books, and now I use them to teach students of my own. This is by far the best Introductory Japanese book out there!

I am teaching myself Japanese and I really like this text. This book has a good collection of vocabulary and is very easy to follow. I recommend this book to everyone. It is excellent! My Japanese friend is very impressed with what I was able to teach myself. I feel very confident in what I have learned. The student CD that accompanies is a little lacking, though. It only covers dialogue and vocab for the book (and workbook), when I really wish the CD included more from the textbook. I also recommend getting the workbook for more practice. You should know that you need the student CD to use the workbook. Genki 1 has to be the best text out there for learning Japanese!

This book may be good for young students who anticipate homestays (and I'm skeptical even about that, for reasons below), but if you're an adult you may find this book excruciating. I recently moved to Japan, and finally determined to take some private lessons to get a more systematic grasp on the language than I have had hitherto. My school uses this text. I can't compare it with other college-style textbooks, which may mostly suffer from the same problems, but among the issues I have with it are:

@ The framing scenario is of foreign students living in homestays and interacting with their homestay families and with each other; there is also a lot of school-related vocabluary. This is largely irrelevant for an adult's experience. It is useless for business, BTW (though in my own case, I was looking more for daily life vocabulary and situations than business).

@ Even within this scenario, the book doesn't teach you how to really have conversation -- all classmates address each other with polite "-masu" form verbs. In real life, this would be distant or even rude with your pals. (Moreover, on the accompanying tapes female gaijin characters like "Mary" and "Sue" address their classmates and homestay parents in that saccharine, squeaky little-girl voice that is normally used by shop staff and female announcers on infomercials, not people talking to friends or family.)

@ In Japan, it is very rare for people to mirror back to you what you say, or for it to be appropriate for you to mirror back to them. This is especially true if your main interactions are with people in shops, where they will use a lot of "keigo" (honorific speech) or other specialized formulas. Simple example: A waitress will bring stuff to your table and ask "Yoroshii desu ka?" (Is that OK?), you don't answer back "Hai, yoroshii desu." Even saying goodbye is highly context dependent; e.g. when someone says "Sorry I'm being so rude as to leave before you," even if you can catch the Japanese phrase you will look like an idiot if you reply symmetrically (been there, done that). This book doesn't give you a clue about dealing with such situations, nor help you to unravel what Japanese people are saying to you when they respond to your questions or remarks. All dialogues and exercises are based on the mirroring principle (as well as indiscriminate use of "wa", the topic particle). So it's pretty useless for practical purposes -- unless you plan to use Japanese in class only.

@ While it's a plus that reading & writing practice are integrated into the text, the reading selections in early chapters are devoid of imagination. After several chapters of reading stuff like "Are you OK? I am fine. It's cold here in Japan. I took some pictures, studied Japanese and took a bath. My father is nice, but very busy," and so on, you just want to scream.

@ Although the publication date is 1999, at which time a dot-com boom was beginning even in Japan, this book is snail-mail all the way: you spend time learning about stamps and postcards, but there isn't anything about email, the Internet or texting. (Forget also about DVDs -- people watch videos.)

@ Japanese verb conjugation has a wonderful regularity, in that almost every verb has a set of stems that are based variously on -A-, -I-, -U-, -E- and -O- (e.g., negative, polite, dictionary, causative and "let's" forms, respectively). This tracks the order of Japanese vowels in the kana writing systems, so it's easy to remember. However, "Genki"'s presentation of verbs obliterates this useful pattern (see, e.g. conjugation chart @ 344 of Vol. I).

@ The book lacks any review chapters, appendices, exercises or quizzes to help you consolidate what you've learned in a chunk of preceding chapters. Schools don't necessarily take the initiative to review the material every now and then, so you may need to request special quizzes to force yourself to review stuff you studied weeks earlier. My teachers were amenable when asked, though my lessons are one-on-one, and this might be more difficult to do if the book is used in a class situation (you might ask about that before you sign up). If you're using the book to study on your own, you're on your own with this too.

Like most students of Japanese, I've stocked up on a shelfload of other books of varying usefulness. (Two of the best, Rita Lampkin's "Japanese: Verbs and Essentials of Grammar" and Jay Rubin's "Making Sense of Japanese", unfortunately are exclusively in Roman characters, or nearly so.) You will definitely need to to the same (or at least half a shelfload) if you use this book. But not getting bored by the boook will be a bigger challenge if you're older than 22. One possible tip might be to look for a book that has at least one gaijin co-author. This one is written entirely by Japanese authors; it could have benefitted from the perspective of a formerly-puzzled foreigner.

Good book as chess coach. Good instruction material as well as useful lessons for myself.

One of the best puzzle book I'read.
It reproduces tournament conditions because no hints on problems and they varies from tactics, to strategy to openings. Also, difficulty is mixed on easy, medium, hard and very hard.
So, start your clock and think like in a tournament. Find the best move ! May be you have to defend yourself and thats the solution !.
Excelent book !

Six diagrams on the left, six short solutions on the right. What's so original? The diagrams are strewn at random, an easy fork, a deep combination, a bit of opening theory, what ever. It's as if you had wandered into a club and started looking over shoulders. That means one must study EVERYTHING before thinking of an answer. Not unlike real life. The author says to cover the right hand page with a card; well of course. The problems are very well selected. I think that I might learn something here.

This book is an outstanding collection of tests on various themes in chess (not only tactics, but also attack, defense, threat identification, counterplay, openings, middlegame, endgame, the thought process, positional play and strategy). The examples are unique here, as John Watson puts it simply in the introduction: "Ray's understanding of the ways in which amateurs oversight that don't occur to the masters who usually write exercise books." This is the key advantage of the collection, which provides very instructive feedback on every test position (running from easy * to very difficult **** regardless of the theme, good for identifying one's weaknesses). The level is about 1600-2000. I hope this approach will become a new popular way to write chess training books for all levels!

Yes, I truly think so, though neither I possess or study chess books on a regular basis. I am just a 1600-1700 ranked player who does not spend much time for studying.
Concept is similar to "How Good is Your Chess" by Larry Evans, but this time you do not have 3 options to chose from. I prize selection of board's positions - they teach! Solutions are well explained and SHORT.
You have about 100 pages (6 puzzles on each), so if you take one page a day or two, pleasure will last about 1/2 a year. The only draw-back is the size of board squares. I wish they were bigger (format/or number of pages should be larger).

If you are hungry for "Gourmet Financial Advice"...then feast your eyes on the clever financial cookbook "Fortune in your Cookies". In a generation of multi-task individuals the Author, Educator and Financial Gourmet, Meena Cheng is one "Smart Cookie" who has combined some of life's most important ingredients...Food, Finance and Common Cents . Her very first word "Food" helped create the clever and tastey recipes for this delicious book.

She has cooked up some sage financial wisdom that is easy to swallow, peppered it with some well balanced cuisine and tossed in a pinch and a dash of good humor... and Voila! Anyone who enjoys cooking, reading and creating fortune will eat this up...Bon Appetit!

Deftly written by certified financial planner and culinary gourmet Meena Cheng, Fortune In Your Cookies: Finding Financial Wisdom In Everyday Eating uses great food dishes as a metaphor for making wise choices and preparations for one's financial future. From investing wisely to protecting oneself against catastrophe to funding your dreams and ensuring an equitable division in the unfortunate case of divorce, Fortune In Your Cookies is a solid and clever presentation of serious money matters in simple terms, easily understood and digested by anyone who enjoys a good meal!

If you are hungry for "Gourmet Financial Advice"...then feast your eyes on the clever financial cookbook "Fortune in your Cookies". In a generation of multi-task individuals the Author, Educator and Financial Gourmet, Meena Cheng is one "Smart Cookie" who has combined some of life's most important ingredients...Food, Finance and Common Cents . Her very first word "Food" helped create the clever and tastey recipes for this delicious book.

She has cooked up some sage financial wisdom that is easy to swallow, peppered it with some well balanced cuisine and tossed in a pinch and a dash of good humor... and Voila! Anyone who enjoys cooking, reading and creating fortune will eat this up...Bon Appetit!

What a treat it was reading Meena's book. Her simplicity of style, both in recipes and approach to financial planning, is a breath of fresh air in today's complex world of day trading and returns on investement. As our generation matures and is faced with dealing with the death of our parents, we'd find the section on estate planning especially helpful. I marked it for my husband to read!

Great book to send as a gift to your sister, your mother, your dear friend or co-workers.

'Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death' is a line from 'Auntie Mame.' Good food and good financial planning can help one live life to its fullest. In 'Fortune in Your Cookies,' Meena Cheng combines her expertise in both areas to create an entertaining primer on investments, tax matters, wills, ways to save, and much more, with recipes for delicious dishes. Her use of food metaphors for teaching time-tested principles of money management are quite apt, such as the one about crayfish. Anyone who has tried to make a meal out of crayfish can relate to the notion of how many days out of a year one must work just to pay Uncle Sam. Like the memory of an enjoyable meal with family and friends, the excellent advice in this entertaining book stays with you for a long time.

"Embrace Ultra-Ability" by Shirley Cheng is a powerful book that demonstrates a spiritual insight I have not seen in a person as young as she is. By skillfully intertwining her spiritual insights with her personal story, she is able to explain how every one has the ability to enjoy a happy, loving and prosperous life full of rich rewarding journeys. A person can not read this book and in reality ever "feel sorry for themselves" again. I highly recommend this book for those seeking ways to embrace every aspect of their lives and develop them to serve others.
Rowena Holloway, Co-Author of the Pray it Forward trilogy.

Shirley Cheng's seem to be able to take on some of life's toughest struggles and by keeping her faith strong in her God and herself, she has been able to do things in her life that might slow down the average person.
After reading "Embrace Ultra-Ability" it seems to me that most of us could learn a thing or 2 on how to soar above our limitations.
Her clear style of writing and thought process made reading this book a self discovery journey.
Elizabeth Cassidy,CTACC
Branching Out Life Coaching

Shirley Cheng is a queen of optimism and inspiration. Her faith in God and love of life are unwavering no matter what challenges she had to face in her short life of twenty four. Her enthusiasm and wisdom about life are contagious.

"Embrace Ultra-Ability" should be read by every human being. If you are facing challenges in life you will learn how to overcome them. And if you don't face any challenges be grateful for every moment you live on this earth, because life is a gift.

Lea Yekutiel - author, Los Angeles, CA

With a pure heart and boundless enthusiasm, Shirley Cheng's new book unveils the foundation of faith, gratitude, love and hope that has brought her through the challenges of life. Just as steel is tempered through fire, this soulful author has been transformed through the many difficulties of her young life. Adopting Shirley's positive views on living and using some of her suggested techniques can bring the same resolute strength into your life with wonderful results. A timeless and ageless fountain of hope that can be read over and over.

In a society that is self absorbed, unjustly critical and judgmental; out comes an honest and humble perspective from a young, prophetic muse, whose inner perception is astounding.

"Embrace Ultra-Ability!" - defines the very essence that truly needs to exist in all of us. We have no place for pity within our lives after reading about the determination, resilience and extreme faith Shirley holds towards her life and her experience. The courage to share her understanding in anticipation others will follow, is a sheer sign of true leadership and accountability.

And as a matter of fact, each teenager should be given this book in High School as a basis from which to build their values, morals and gratitude toward life.

With what we view as set-backs, Ms. Cheng views her challenges as monuments of growth and turns them in to the highest of accomplishments and achievements. I honor her endurance and envy her strength.

Very well done...What is next Ms. Cheng?

This is a very good hard-cover Chinese-English dictionary for those who are interested in a dictionary that features traditional characters and uses Zhuyin (bo po mo fo) for pronunciation, such as anyone interested in visiting Taiwan. The characters are organized by radical number and stroke count, and a Zhuyin phonetic index is in the back of the dictionary, as well as phonetic indices for two other phonetic systems (Gwoyeu Romatzyh and the U. N. Mandarin Phonetic Symbols). Since the dictionary is a Chinese-English dictionary, it is very useful for looking up Chinese characters you read and words you hear. For each character entry, there are often multiple (up to several dozen in some cases) common phrases of two or more characters in length all starting with that character. As I am a native English speaker, I have found that the dictionary is well complimented by an English-Chinese dictionary so that I can also look up words and phrases I know in English and would like to say or write in Chinese.

I recommend this dictionary to native English speaking students of Mandarin Chinese with traditional characters.

I have used this dictionary for nearly 10 years, and I believe that in that time, working regularly with classical documents, I have encountered no more than 5 characters not included in this dictionary. Certainly for students of modern Chinese, this is as complete a dictionary as you will likely ever need. Characters are listed by several different indexes in both the front and the back, including one index for characters with ambiguous radicals! My only objection is that alternative character forms are inconsistently listed in the indexes, meaning that characters that at first appear not to be included may be included under different forms. Others will not like the absence of the most contemporary usages and colloquialisms; in return, however, they will get a wide range of definitions used in both classical and modern Chinese, a remarkable number of phrases, both classical and modern, and a constantly useful range of biographical and historical names, which can otherwise be very difficult to locate. All in all, my dictionary of first choice on a shelf that includes at least 10 of them.

Fantastic! I was expecting a big and good dictionary. And had the surprise in receiveing a wonderful, very well printed, fine paper dictionary - not tzu tian ( words
dictionary) but ci tian ( phrases dictionary )! Hardcover and with a nice box, besides, with a special plastic cover! And for each of its more than 7 thousands entries, more than 6 or 8 examples, with pronounciation, what makes more than 56 thousands expressions! Zhuyin Fuhao and Pyin Yin ! Fantastic is not enough for this treasure!

Above all, this is designed more for advanced learners, native speakers, and particularly users who are familiar with the Taiwanese Zhuyin symbols as all the entries are organized by Zhuyin instead of Pinyin. As Pinyin becomes a more commonly used romanization system for Mandarin, users who don't know Zhuyin or are more familiar with Pinyin may find it inconvenient to use. The main entry (the listed character) does provide the Pinyin of the character in addition to Zhuyin and Wade-Giles symbols, but the sub-entries (the compound nouns and phrases) are only listed with Zhuyin and with no Pinyin reference. I do like the fact that it offers traditional characters. (I believe that a simplified character version is also available out there.) Despite my personal preference on the romanization system, it is a relatively better Chinese-English dictionary compared with those in the market. It has a fairly comprehensive collection of sub-entries under each character with good definition and translation. Last but not the least, the reference pages at the beginning with the traditional radical system and at the end with all three romanization systems listed are pretty useful for learners who are really into learning traditional characters and/or need references on different phonetic romanization systems. So if you don't mind looking up words with Zhuyin symbols, it is a pretty good Chinese-English dictionary.

This may be of use to Chinese speakers from Taiwan who are translating into English. However, for native speakers of English who translate Chinese into English, or for students who need to look-up using pinyin, this dictionary will be of limited value. There is a pinyin index but it is not as convenient as a fully pinyin dictionary. Furthermore, although head character entries have pinyin readings, character compounds listed as sub-entries under each head character lack pinyin readings. It is more comprehensive than Oxford's Chinese-English English-Chinese (ISBN 0195911512) but I only use it rarely for characters I can't find in Oxford.

I've had this cookbook for about 20 years & its my best used cookbook. I have a couple other chinese cookbooks; but they are overly complicated and just overwhelming with too much information. I orginally got this cookbook for the Fried Pork Dumpling (potstickers) recipe. It is spot-on the best recipe for these kind of dumplings. I usually make up several hundred at a time & they freeze wonderfully!!! Alot of trial & error resulted in the following: Make dumplings (but don't cook). Put on a lightly floured pan. Flash freeze for about an hour. Put 6-8 in a quart canning jar & vacuum seal. When needed, pull out jar from freezer, lightly flour a plate, remove frozen dumplings & set on floured plate (not touching). Put in freezer overnight. Next day, fry up as in directions. They are just as wonderful as the day you made them fresh.

I have used this cook book for years it is the best I have found for good Chinese cooking. Directions easy to follow.

This is a decent, if unspectacular book.

STRENGTHS:
* The authoress covers a fair amount of ground.
* Many of the recipes are very tasty, and well honed.

WEAKNESSES:
* The authoress glosses over many areas that are important for westerners ... such as how to evaluate, buy, season, and care for a high quality wok. The authoress just seems to assume you have one. The authoress also glosses over most of the finer details regarding the essential differences in regional styles of Chinese cooking. Disappointing for a book having a title that implies exhaustive depth that doesn't actually exist within.
* The authoress doesnt always remember to give enough of the aliases for various ingredients, leaving readers to rely upon educated guesses based on photos.
* The recipes and instructions are not always laid out in logical order, nor are they clearly and adequately explained in all cases. Her recipe for classic pork dumplings, for instance, takes a bit of re-reading, and a fair amount of trial and error (and cursing) in order to make the indicated amount of dough appear even remotely adequate for the amount of filling she calls for. This book could have benefitted from some much needed polishing by an independant chef/editor.
* The authors doesn't really give any insight into preferences and background, or her cooking philosophy ... she just plowed ahead and dumps a bunch of recipes into her book. Then again, this book was written some time ago, and cookbook styles have since been chaging and evolving - chefs are now allowed to inject themselves into their books. That wasn't always true.

In any case, the book appears a bit dated by today's standards. There are more exhaustive, more entertaining, better photographed, and better edited books available than this one. It's adequate, and it'll serve it's function if it's your only book on the cuisine, and that's about as much as I can say about it.

This is the best Chinese cookbook I've used. There are lots of delicious and pretty easy recipes. Once you buy a good set of the major ingredients (ginger, hoisin, rice wine, soy sauce) and get a decent wok/any big pan, you can make a lot of delicious meals that are as good as any Chinese restaurant, for very cheap. The Mongolian Beef is really good. It tells you the basics of Chinese cooking, like how to make tofu and how to cook really good white rice. Highly recommended from an amateur cook on a budget like myself who loves flavorful Chinese food.

I bought this book when I was first learning to cook because I love Chinese food and wanted to do my own fried rice. While the other recipes are very good, this is the best fried rice you will ever eat. I no longer eat fried rice in restaurants because it cant match this.

One of my most treasured possessions is battered old Chinese paperback I picked up for the equivalent of about fifty cents many years ago. The print is uneven and smudged, the paper is poor-quality with lots of show-through, and the book isn't even properly bound but has just been stapled together.

So why do I treasure it? Well, in the first place because it's a book of selections from a man I personally consider to be the wisest and wittiest philosophical writer the world has ever seen, the Taoist Chuang-tzu. I also treasure it because, although I've looked at many different editions of Chuang-tzu, I've never seen him translated so well. The translator is Lin Yutang, a man who almost got the Nobel prize for his literary accomplishments, and if you read him you'll understand why.

The present book, 'The Wisdom of Laotse,' has also always been very special to me. In it, Lin Yutang has had the brilliant idea of interspersing, chapter-by-chapter along with his translation of Lao-tzu's Tao Te Ching, a very generous selection of passages from his marvelous version of Chuang-tzu which help to point up and expand upon the themes of the Tao Te Ching.

Lin Yutang, in other words, has given us both the Tao Te Ching and the essence of Chuang-tzu between the covers of the same book. Both of these are works to nourish the spirit, works we often find ourselves returning to, a true treasure of wisdom spiced with fun.

It's unfortunate that the Lin Yutang is now out-of-print. It's an older translation, but I don't think it's ever really been bettered. And Lao-tzu could have no finer commentator than Chuang-tzu. Perhaps you'll get lucky and be able to find a used copy. I hope so, as I don't think you'll regret it.

The Te-Tao Ching is the Taoist must to have and understand, a truly enlightening book. This is the book that began my interest in Taoism, but not all Taoism the alchemic Taoism I find to be too unusual for me. So I study philosophical Taoism and this book is the one to begin with in my opinion no matter what part of Taoism you want to study. The translations are thought out well and explained to the reader in a very straitforward matter without being to complicated. If you enjoy philosophy I suggest you read this book.

Outstanding translation into Western idiom of Taoist concepts. This book is especially useful for linking Chuang-Tsu and Lao-Tsu allowing the reader to develop a systematic understanding of the two major thinkers of the Taoist tradition.

There are more than one hundred translations of Lao-tzu's TAO TE CHING in Western languages, and more than forty versions in English alone. Lao-tzu speaks to those searching for a more meaningful way of life in a society degraded by economic, militaristic, modern values. Robert Henricks' translation is notable in that it is one of several new translations based upon the Ma-wang-tui texts. These texts were discovered in 1973, preserved in the tomb of an official's son. That tomb has been dated to 168 B.C.

Professor Henricks is Professor of Religion at Dartmouth College, and he is a well-known scholar of the Ma-wang-tui texts. His translation is a work of impressive scholarship. He follows the classic two-part, eighty-one stanza form of the TAO TE CHING, giving us two versions of the text, the first his bare-text translation and the other delineated with his commentary and notes. His translation is more literal than Stephen Harrison's more popular poetic rendering of the TAO TE CHING, and more scholarly than Red Pine's translation. It is easy to compare Henricks' translation to Moss Roberts' more recent scholarly translation. Professor Henricks has given us a superior translation of Lao-tzu's TAO TE CHING.

G. Merritt

I found this book in 1973 at age 13 after reading a TV guide profile of the show Kung Fu. It said that the show's philosophy was based on the Taoist writings of Lao Tse. I found a copy of this book in a used bookstore and it started me on a lifelong love and appreciation of this simple, natural and profound philosophy. I have found myself turning to this book at nearly all of my life's crossroads. I am now looking for a second copy because my original is so extensively highlighted and underlined, the binding's falling apart and I want to start all over again with a clean copy.
I have since read every collection and translation of Laoste and Chuangtse that I could find. They ranged from great to bad to unintentionally hilarious. This is still my dearest and most treasured one by far. Yutangs translation is direct and poetic. I love his idea of using Chuantse's parables to expand upon Lao Tse's verses. This book should still be in print.

Daring Quests of Mystics by Shirley Cheng is an enchanting story that will be loved by anyone who reads it. On a scale of a one to five stars, this book receives a ten! Most would say a sixth grader knows nothing about books but, believe me, I've read a lot and this is one of the best I've ever read. From the beginning to the end, this book keeps you on the edge.

This book is highly entertaining and I recommend it to everyone. From the strange beginning to the tearful end, this book is an excellent book for all ages (especially girls). I loved it very much. Many times when I read a book and recommend it to others, they aren't interested or say that I read too much. I think that most of those people would love this book and will read it once they start. Daring Quests of Mystics is very entertaining.

This exciting book has many interesting twists and many morals to share. In this book you will find romance, enchantment, and mystery at every turn. From Princess Sophia's kidnapping to Lord Veldolf's love for Princess Sophia, you can see that this book is unpredictable. Of the many messages in this story, the one that stands out to me is that good always conquers evil. I love this book very much and I hope whoever else reads this agrees.

--Sophia, Age 12

I love the vision of Shangri-la in Shirley Cheng's book. I was enchanted by the descriptions of intriguing settings throughout, and I like how some of the rich details get wrapped around the dramatic moments. Each has a compelling lesson to which readers are drawn. It gives a good overall message - the power of a daring heart, magic and goodness defeating evil.

While I would like to see more plot twists in her stories, I understand Shirley's motivation to be simplistic. Her story is in sync with her motto of bringing hope and healing to this world. God knows we need them!

Reviewed by Sondra Fowler for Reader Views (2/06)

"Daring Quest of Mystics", is an anthology of very short stories that centers around the life of Princess Sophia. Sophia is aided by the gifts given to her by mystic friend Dawn. The Princess and her gifts effortlessly fight against evil in every selection.

The stories are written with a wide eyed innocence and simplicity of plot that would be well suited to stories for young children's story books. I can see these as bed time stories for the smallest of children as there is no tension, no real peril and everything is sweetness and light. There will be no monsters under the bed due to the reading of these stories.

The writing was descriptive. But I found the characters to be less than full bodied. They were more caricatures than characters and at times the complexity of language used in the text went far beyond the depth of the story.

There is a sweetness to these stories that to an adult seems unbearable to withstand but that should prove the perfect portion to a tiny princess tucked snuggly beneath a candy pink blanket.

Daring Quest of Mystics by Shirley cheng is a fun adventurous read for all ages. This is a facsinating book of short stories, each with a moral. I would recommend this book for all ages, I have passed it on to my teenage son to read, because the fun, magical story is also teaching while entertaining. Something that is hard to find. I look forward to the next book by this author.

Daring Quests of Mystics is a charming collection of short stories that is filled with quaint, old-world imagery and poetic visualization. Author Shirley Cheng has captured the hearts of youngsters who still beg for the fairytale filled with Princesses, Kings and imminent danger.

Follow Princess Sophia as she foils evil plots with the help of the magical gifts given to her by Dawn, a soothsayer and wise woman. Learn the lessons of betrayal and forgiveness, deception and honesty, loss and love. Daring Quests of Mystics may remind the reader of Aesop's fables--short tales that touch upon the importance of morals.

Shirley Cheng, an American author who has overcome great physical disabilities herself, is a 'princess' at heart, and one can only imagine some of the pain she has endured. However, with this wonderful collection of stories, she shares her inner world and exudes a radiant light that speaks volumes. Here is a young author who inspires. Hats off to Shirley Cheng for giving us Princess Sophia and the engaging world of Noxellia! Daring Quests of Mystics is a fantastic fantasy for the young--or the young-at-heart!

~ Cheryl Kaye Tardif, author of Whale Song (2007 Kunati Books) and Divine Intervention