Douglas Books

Garry Kilworth has provided us with a delightful insight into the world of mice. The book follows the trials and tribulations of a "visionary" mouse called Pedlar as he attempts to rid a house of humans. With a cast that includes such names as Phart, Flegm, Jarl Forkwhiskers and Ferocious, there is plenty of opportunity for humour from the author. This book is far better than Midnight's Sun and, although the ending seems a little rushed, I challenge anyone to say the story and characters are anything less than charming.

Our history has it's "Iliada" and "Oddysey". Mices has it's own too. If you read "The Golden Fleece" by Robert Graves and you enyojed it it's the best time to look for "House of Tribes" by Garry Kilworth.

A charming and moving story about an adventurous mouse or a profound fable about the whole of humankind? Take your pick because this exquisite book can be enjoyed on different levels. OK so comparisons with Watership Down are inevitable, but this is far lustier and does not get bogged down in melancholy. Try it. I'm sure you'll enjoy it!

This is one of the best books that Garry Kilworth has written.
The story begins with a young mouse, Pedlar, going on a journey. He has always been curious about "The House", and decides to go there.


When he arrives, he finds that each room of the house is home to its own tribe. They are all at war with one another.


Then, one of the mice comes up with a great plan. If the mice could get rid of the humans (which they call nudniks), then they would have the everlasting pantry to themselves.


And so begins The Great Nudnik Drive . . .

With a companion CD-ROM, this title is great for anyone planning to buy or sell a small business. It includes everything you'll need to know about valuing the business, evaluating the business, financing and raising the capital, while supplying many of the much needed letters and legal forms that will be used throughout the entire process.

Made up of easy to read, short chapters, you will find much of the important information broken down into bulleted and numbered lists throughout the text. This allows the reader to find just the information needed quickly, while also breaking down what could be an overwhelming amount of information into digestible pieces.

In this title you will find the "Classified Case Studies: Directly From The Experts" pages which are commonly found in books by Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc. These pages give valid, real life experiences from professionals who have already bought or sold a small business.

If you have a small business and are looking to sell, or you are an entrepreneur looking to purchase, this title may be just the one for you!

Business selling and acquisitions can be a tricky trade when you don't know the rules and the procedures to use which analyzes a business past, present and future performances. Loans from banks and other financial sources are tough to obtain if you don't have a comprehensive business or action plan in place. You must know your market and study information pertaining to the business endeavor that you are contemplating.

How to Buy and/or Sell a Small Business for Maximum Profit introduces you to the process of buying and selling businesses by focusing on personal goals, proper strategic planning, action planning, writing out sound investment strategies and, seeking capital and financing options. The book contains a CD-ROM with Excel and Adobe Formatted worksheets to assist you in creating financial projections.

Author Rene V. Richards simplifies the terms you hear on CNN and other financial outlets so you can understand what the process is when you hear stories about businesses being sold or bought. Even though it's basic reading, this book is a good place to get information from for the novice investor.

This book is another winner from Atlantic Publishing Group which specializes in Business, Management, Technology and Training topics that novices and individuals on an Intermediate level can understand and implement quickly and efficiently.

I found this information invaluable in buying a small business. This book is for the new small business buyer/seller. If you are ready to make a change and purchase a small business then you will want his book in your arsenal. From learning about the business to buying and selling strategies to financing, etc. you will find this book full of helpful information in easy to read format. The included CD with the forms is helpful, too. All you have to do is print out the forms and start using them. Make your dream of buying or selling a small business a reality.

This book is a complete step-be-step guide to buying/selling a small business. The author begins by explaining the process of choosing the right business for you. He continues by giving detailed explanations of each step of the process, following through to how to deal with your new employees.
The book includes a CD that contains the complete book plus a sample business plan that can be modified to suit your needs. Another benefit of the book is the simplified explanation of how to do a financial analysis of the prospective business. This analysis tells you a lot about the way a business operates and if the business is worth the investment risk.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is seriously looking into buying a small business. It is packed full of helpful information and is written in terminology that is very easy to understand. The financial information alone is well worth the purchase of the book.

This book explores issues in main stream religion that keep people from living full and free lives. Sarah has obviously done her homework and has many answers to many issues. This book seems to targeted toward people who want a closer more secure relationship with God and freedom from the condemnation of mainstream religion. Her book has helped me, I'm sure it will help many.

Not since the departure from the dark ages has anyone been so bold to point the finger back at mainstream religion and ask: Where is the authority of Christ? Why must the masses be blindfolded and barred from introspection and personal revelation? Why would God only speak to some if we are all his children? Sarah reaches into the heart of her readers as she tells her story of religious defeat, her desperation to know the truth, and the spiritual victory that saved her soul. Sarah triumphs over evil in this engaging journey into the light and inspires us all to love and forgive.

Sarah brilliantly voices the very thing that so many of us in the religious arena have suffered. She shows us that exploration and questioning are not only self-fulfilling, but are essential to our spiritual progression. Although she explores topics that may vary from the beliefs of some, at the core is an unbelievably freeing look into what it means to have a personal relationship with God and what we can actually do to aid in our own healing. I would highly recommend this book to anyone searching for answers or who might be feeling helpless in the outcome of their own life.

For many years my life was centered in Christian Churches. I did everything I could do to support the work. I gave of my time and of my finances for close to 30 years. Christianity had become the center of my life. Only one thing was wrong.. one very big thing. I was not seeing any real changes or victories in my life. So I pulled away from church and began to look for alternative sources of truth. My mind was entangled in confusion over what was the truth and what was deception. A friend recommended this book to me and as I read it many of the answers I have sought were in it. I don't understand everything that Sarah writes about, but I am much clearer in my understanding because of her book.

Some copies (especially used copies) of this book don't include the web registration key sticker. If you need it, you can contact Insightful Technical Support (keys at insightful dot com) to get a registration key and password.

I have got a very good and prompt service and response from Amazon for the book ordered.

The best book on this subject. It provides both an excellent up-to-date overview of the relevant literature and an application-oriented perspective. The chapter on robust estimation is outstanding.

I will admit to being torn between four and five stars for this book. I ultimately deduct a star because of: the lack of any sign of the promised web registration key for downloading the 150 day trial software and data, the heavy use of NuOPT where vanilla S/R code would have been sufficient and possibly even easier to understand, and the frequent use by the authors of providing symbolic solutions from Scherer's 2000 book on optimization where implementation is "left as an excercise".

The book dispenses with traditional Markowitz mean-variance optimization in the first chapter, and then moves on to many other methods of optimization for different types of portfolios, asset classes, and investor utility functions. All of this is excellent, comprising the broadest treatment in a single title that I am aware of.

The book makes heavy use of NuOPT, an add-on package for S-Plus from Insightful, and the SIMPLE linear programming included with NuOPT. I was disappointed that the authors make no effort to work problems without NuOPT, even when simplex or other methods would solve the problems presented in more elegant manner.

I was most disappointed that the authors often leave implementation to the reader. Every chapter has "Exercises" at the end. This is fine. I don't think it is fine to discuss the symbolic solution of a problem (like several of the scenario optimization methods discussed in Chapter 5), and then leave as an excercise the implementation of those portfolio solutions in S-PLUS, SIMPLE, or NuOPT. Nearly every chapter has a significant section, usually lifted largely from Scherer's 2000 book, that suffers from this deficiency. It is almost as if the publishers were pushing for a draft, and the authors went through and "left as exercises" whatever they didn't have tested code for.

All my negatives left to the side, this is still the best treatment you'll find in a single title on many issues of portfolio optimization under varying conditions today. Buy this book if you work in portfolio optimization with S-Plus or R.

Drawing on a massive body of Study - this book has highlighted much of
my life experience and set it in a context that has allowed me to make better sense of it. I am about halfway through it and am happy to give this review on what I have read so far. It really is allowing me to know myself and by doing so be true to what I know - I am 53 years old and starting to come "online".

Students of Dr. Moore have eagerly awaited this part of his continuing series that explores the mapping of the human personality. The complete series with even my partial understanding of theory has illuminated my reading of classical text, theology and brought an understanding of modern events. Dr. Moore's work is not for the casual psycho pop fan and critical to the serious student of personality and faith.

When this book was first published in 1992, I admired it, and I also admired the four other books by Moore and Gillette that came out about the same time. If you have not already read it, it is worth the time to read, as are the other four books by the co-authors.

However, I am disappointed by the 2007 edition. To be sure, it includes many more graphics. But so what? In my estimate, this book would be improved by the deletion of all the graphics. What the book needs are detailed discussions of a few concrete examples. The authors might even start such a discussion of concrete examples by discussing themselves to a certain extent.

The authors profess to admire Erik Erikson's work. Fine. Erikson wrote a short book entitled _Young Man Luther_ and then a longer book entitled _Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence_. By studying two historical personages in detail, Erikson enabled us to see how his ideas about personal development could be used to help us understand two historical figures.

Now, could the ideas developed by Moore and Gillette help us understand certain historical figures? Perhaps they could. But Moore and Gillette have not undertaken to study any historical figures in depth. As a result of the lack of detailed discussions of actual historical figures, their ideas seem rather abstract and visionary and utopian. If convincing examples of the positive versions of the masculine archetypes of maturity can be found no place in this world, then the visions of the positive forms are utopian (Greek u = no, topos = place).

The authors dedicate this particular book to King David. However, when David's son Amnon rapes his half-sister Tamar, King David does not punish Amnon, even though David's job as king involves upholding the law and punishing offenders. To his credit, David was angry about what Amnon did. But his anger did not move him to take any action against Amnon. This example and other examples from the biblical account of King David suggest that he embodies the "shadow" form of the King archetype that Moore and Gillette refer to as the Weakling King, not the positive form. So why dedicate the book to a "shadow" form of the King archetype?

In the United States, the president comes close to being an elected king for four years or whatever the length of his or her term in office. I've read enough now about John F. Kennedy to think that he came close to embodying the positive form of the king archetype of maturity, despite his illicit sexual escapades (which manifested the "shadow" form of the lover archetype discussed by Moore and Gillette). David Talbot's book _Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years_ (2007) brings home certain qualities of JFK that I find deeply admirably.

On a more personal level, I recently reread the newspaper story that my mother clipped and saved about her uncle that was published at the time of his death in 1970. He was born on July 4, 1885, and he became a millionaire in the construction business during the Great Depression. Even though the newspaper story described his business sucess, the story detailed his generosity to charities and an honor he had received from the Vatican. He was very kind to me with his time and attention when I was a young boy growing up, and I would consider him an example of masculine maturity.

Because there are numerous other examples of masculine maturity in the history of this country, I would urge Moore and Gillette to found the American Hall of Fame of Mature Men who deserve to be remembered and honored.

--Thomas J. Farrell, author of Walter Ong's Contributions to Cultural Studies: The Phenomenology of the Word and I-Thou Communication (Media Ecology)

Robert Moore and Doug Gillette published 5 books (that I know of) on their theory of 4 male archetypes. The first is an overview entitled: "King, Warrior, Magician, Lover." They followed up this fine introductory work with a book on each of the 4 archetypes. This one is, of course, on the King Archetype. Each of the 4 books has a completely redundant section (worth reading once, anyway), but also has much material on the particular, titled, archetype. The names of the archetypes are defined a bit differently than society might define them--moving the descriptions into the worlds of psychology and mythology which the two authors are well-versed in. If you read one, you "should" (I dislike that word, but what can you do?) read all of them. Otherwise, you get a skewed view of the archetypes, the authors' works, and the theory they propose. I like "The King Within" very much. It provides not only description of the archetype but some ramifications and ideas as to how to implement or invoke it. I found the book uplifting and see the glass as half full. The authors provided the rationale and some means of implementation of the Mens' Movement. Not only are these books valuable to men, but they are, perhaps, even more valuable to women who wish to interact and support men. They are a wonderful addition to the literature and to humans understanding themselves and each other.

This is one of the best travelogues you will ever find about any place, anywhere!
Not to mention about countries as obscure as Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands - two rarely visited, but fascinaing archipelagos indeed.
The author does in-depth research about the history and culture of these places before setting out on a personal voyage retracing a route that was taken by his great-grandfather who had been a missionary in these parts. His homework pays off very nicely: not only does he succeed in getting everywhere he wants to, but also writes a book rich in background info in addition to his personal impressions and adventures. And he certainly does get to some remote parts of these remote countries: the Banks Islands and Maewo in Vanuatu, or Temotu province in the Solomons are out of the way places visited by very few.

Why only 4 stars then?
Well, even though the author claims to be an atheist and thus tries to examine the role of religion in local cultures objectively, he soon becomes obsessed with the idea of finding "magic" ("true" magic, that is) in these islands. He is hoping to find it performed by everyone and anyone from traditional medicine men to the local Anglican clergy, undeterred by the fact that he himself admits every single incident he has managed to observe was either a very obvious trick or at best the result of what could well have been a natural coincidence. This change in focus of the book became a bit annoying eventually.

But all in all, an excellent, amazingly well researched account.
Definitely recommended if you are interested in this region at all.
I read the book just before visiting Melanesia, and it was as good a reading as any to prepare me for my trip there.

And a tip: the book is still available in new copies on Amazon's Canadian site - have a look there if you can't find it here.

This book is a fascinating journey that explores the power of simply believing in something, whether it be religion, myth, an icon or people themselves. It presents facts without prejudice yet reveals fascinating details of the author's personal, emotional and geographical journey as he follows his great grandfather's footsteps to the other side of the world. It combines stories of academia, theology, history and contemporary issues in a non-confrontational yet intriguing presentation of generations and cultures colliding in our ever-shrinking global community. I highly recommend reading Charles Montgomery's "The Last Heathen". It is an exceptional story which deserves a captive audience.

Fabulous book. Part travel, part history, part meeting of two cultures, the author lays it all before you with a delightful sense of humour, a discerning eye, and a sincere respect for the people of Melanesia. It opens up a window to a world most people know nothing about and are unlikely to ever encounter. For me, as a frequent visitor to that part of the world, it was wonderful a trip down memory lane.

By the time a little packet of sand gets opened on page 2 of the book, I got swept up in a tale much grander than the postcard idyll of the cover seems to suggest. The narrator travels tough terrain and has adventures of the kind best experienced in an armchair; he tells them eloquently and passionately; but the real magic of the book is how these experiences are woven into larger and deeper ideas that elevate it past almost all travel writing.
It is beautifully written, it is a great book and like all great books, it transforms the reality of the reader; in the end it is their world that has changed, that has become less familiar, less certain, and strangely more alive.

Obviously, Monty Python fans will want to read it, but aside from that, this is one of the most entertaining biographies I've read. Although the least successful of the Pythons in terms of solo career, Chapman may well have had the most interesting life - doctor, homosexual, alcoholic, mountaineer. By turns hilarious, angry, sad, and very silly.

when i bid on the book from a dude from england on ebay, i thought i knew exactly what the book was gonna be about. well, i learned a lot more about my 2nd fave python (1st is eric idle) than i thought i would. i learned a lot about graham from watching monty python several times over the years, reading short biographies on websites, and seeing a few other movies he has appeared in. when i read this book, i learned a lot more about him than i ever could from watching him and reading facts about him that people have gathered, and that is learning about how he truely felt throughout the more difficult times of his life. with all the information i learned about the late graham chapman, what i knew before was only a small fraction of what i know today. this book is the best book i have ever read, and i actually got really into it too, and im not a big fan of reading. this book was hard for me to put down, and graham chapman is surely one of the greatest people in my eyes. like he once said before, "i hope i have achieved something lasting." this book is so great, and you wont regret purchasing it. i highly recomend it.

Having just finished A Liar's Autobiography by Graham Chapman, I can tell you that Monty Python fans will love it. Not only did it offer humerous accounts of the author's life before Python, but it was often very touching as well. We learn about Chapman's journey through medical school and his struggle with drugs and alcohol, as well as his realization and acceptance of his homosexuality. The reader will also learn about his family, friends, travel experiences and good times during the many Monty Python tours, films and television episodes. Enjoy!

The title of this highly amusing book is both informative and misleading. Informative firstly because the "liar" part refers to Chapman tendency to drift of into fantasy land and relate stories from Biggles books and other bizarre episodes as if they were part of his life. Misleading secondly because usually autobiographies are written by the subject - whereas for this one much of the writing was done by three others with the occasional footnote by the author (if that makes any sense). But that aside this is a highly enjoyable read as well as being painfully poignant and also thought-provoking. There is little doubt that Chapman was one of the great comic geniuses of our time, and this is a book that well represents his playful insanity.

This critical analysis of Evelyn Waugh's work and life is outstanding. It convincingly describes the beliefs and motives behind his writing and avoids anachronism. If you want to understand the man, his thought and his times this is the book to read.

If anyone who wishes to learn more about the life and the works of Evelyn Waugh, this may not be the biography for him. Currently, there are three major biographies of Waugh-Stannard, Sykes, and Patey. Stannard's work is cumbersome, and often his prose is awkward, but it is certainly well worth reading for its inclusiveness. Sykes is more of a reminiscence of friendship, including anecdotes that he was privy to. Patey is the first author of apply high literary criticism to Waugh in the kind of form that a professor is apt to do. He responds specifically to continual problems raised in Waugh scholarship and provides far more coherent and concrete answers than Stannard or Sykes even attempt. He organizes the biography with an eye on chronology, but also addresses issues thematically which is brilliant, and simple, but what few literary biographies do. Bravo Mr. Patey! Thank you very much for your hard work on this matter. His biography is also meticulously footnoted.

Though half the length of the other standard biographies (Sykes, Stannard, and Hastings), Patey's book is more interesting and more insightful. He provides a context for Waugh's thoughts, so that some of EW's positions seem less strange. Patey also defends Waugh's books against the vicious criticism to which they have often been subjected. Another strength is Patey's explanation of what redeems even the non-Catholic characters. The surprising answer: the ability to love. Patey doesn't carry this point all the way through, and sometimes he seems too sympathetic to Waugh. Still, I'd rather re-read his biography than any of the others.

Critics have tended to split Evelyn Waugh into two authors: the hysterically funny satirist who wrote books like "Vile Bodies" and "The Loved One," and the very conservative Catholic writer who gave us "Brideshead Revisited" and other works. Patey shatters this shallow understanding, demonstrating convincingly that Waugh's satire, like Swift's, is solidly based on a system of positive values -- in Waugh's case, pre-Vatican II Roman Catholic religion. Patey's treatment of this aspect of Waugh, so central to him as a writer and as a man, is simply masterful. I have always found this side of Waugh distasteful, but through Patey, I found myself pulled into an intense and exciting dialogue with Waugh and his beliefs. The treatment of Waugh's life is equally superb. Perhaps more than any other genre, satire requires a knowledge of its historical context to be appreciated. Patey seems to know everything about everyone Waugh ever met, and to have read and understood everything Waugh might ever have read. He has synthesized it all and delivered it in a prose style so clear and unobtrusive that you don't appreciate it until you reflect on what he's accomplished with it. And he lets Waugh make all the jokes. There's much about Waugh to dislike, but Patey provides an understanding of the man and his art that reconciles us to him. And besides, how can you hold a grudge against an author who names a character Aimee Thanatogenous?

Fredrick Harper reveals the powerful driving force behind our true self and provides us with an intriguing compilation of poems from start to finish. In a straightforward, easy-to-understand style that will enlighten and uplift you. I was pleasantly surprised at how this book of poetry helped me look within myself and explore the light within me.

This is a wonderful book of poems and thoughts that cover a broad spectrum of human attributes. Attributes that I continuously want to---
ponder,
immulate,
know about,
discuss,
relate to,
be reminded of, and
observe in my self and other people.
THE LIGHT WITHIN US, provides spiritual, inspirational messages and food for thought and discussion. The entries are presented in the author's distinctive, magnetic, and straight forward style.

"The Light Within Us" is a powerful poem book which touches the souls of all age levels. Frederick Harper is a powerful writer who inspires us all and truly lifts us up. This book is highly recommended as a teaching and motivational tool.

This book of poems by Frederick Harper is full of depth and insight. He is a modern day Khalil Gibran. These poems teach, reach, and lift the spirit. A must read for everyone interested in poetry that grabs the soul.

This is a great historical resource. I found it to be a great source for insight into the man and the beliefs of Abraham Lincoln. I highly recommend this book.

I have started reading & relaying information to reinactments I have on tape. Really accurate so far. Worth the buy.

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates have justly been celebrated in American history as one of the milestones in Abraham Lincoln's rise to the presidency. However, Lincoln's own well-meaning assembling of the received text of these debates used only transcripts from papers friendly to either candidate--transcripts which, Harold Holzer argues, were smoothed over and revised by reporters eager to make "their" candidate look good. Holzer insists that we must go to the transcripts of Lincoln's speeches by the pro-Douglas paper, and vice-versa, to get a true sense of what was said off the cuff by the debaters. His edition portrays vividly not only the high-sounding rhetoric of Douglas and the noble ideals of Lincoln, but also the hesitations and mis-speakings of both men. In this way, the reader gets a better sense of what it was like to be in the crowd listening as history was being made

The series of debates in Illinois between Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln during the 1858 campaign for the U.S. Senate are one of those legendary political encounters of which everyone has heard but few have gone back and actually read. However, since Lincoln never kept any of his papers prior to winning the Presidency, we do not have autograph copies of his Cooper Union or House Divided speeches, let alone his handwritten notes of the great debates. The claim made by Harold Holzer for his edition is that this is the first complete, unexpurgated text of the debates to be published. Holzer notes that what we have relied upon previously for debate transcripts were copies taken down by stenographers for intensely partisan newspapers. Holzer's hypothesis is that the editors and transcribers for these newspapers would improve the remarks by their own candidates while leaving those of his opponent alone. Supporting his idea are the unedited texts of the debate he uncovered. Of course, Holzer provides his own useful additions to the texts of the seven debates in the form of extensive notes (often covering the audience reactions as detailed by various papers). As a two-time winner of the Lincoln/Barondess Award of the Lincoln Round Table and the first Award of Achievement given by the Abraham Lincoln Association for his hundreds of articles and books on Lincoln, Holzer is certainly in a position to make such judgments.

You should be warned that reading these debates will both exhilarate and depress you. These debates lasted three hours and forced the candidates to develop comprehensive proposals and to respond in detail to the attacks of their opponent. The thought of Bore or Gush trying to talk from notes for even fifteen minutes is enough to make you laugh, cry or bang you head against the wall. Reading the Lincoln-Douglas debates, in this or any other edition, will certainly give you more of a feel for the issue of Slavery circa 1858 than you will ever get from a history book from which you may get a few choice quotes (what the back cover would call "volleys"). For those of us who want access to primary documents, who read court decisions rather than let talking heads on the tube tell us what they think things might possibly mean, books like this are a great joy. For those who admire Lincoln, the right man in the right place at the right time at the worst moment in our country's history, the Lincoln in these debates who is speaking extemporaneously from notes rather than reading from a carefully crafted and fine tuned text is arguably the closest we get to the real man.