Hoffman Books

Marty Hogan has only one chance to revive her career after a horrific meltdown that cost her everything, including her job with the Chicago police. Police Chief Clay Settlemeyer is willing to give Marty a chance to redeem herself despite the nationally televised beating of a suspect, a beating for which Marty was later acquitted by a jury but not by the media. Marty is on the edge of self-destruction when her former partner is brutally tortured and killed. Is Marty the next target?

What a page turner! Linda Castillo keeps readers on the edge of their seats with this fast paced tale. I stayed up long past my bedtime to finish this one as I just had to know how it would all resolve. Be forewarned, however, as this is a very gritty tale. Marty is truly on the edge and her journey back to living is not an easy one.

It takes a lot to make a character like Marty likable, as Marty so obviously doesn't like herself. Through the eyes of Clay, we are given a glimpse of the darkness and pain that swirls within Marty and this helps with understanding what she is enduring. Linda Castillo adds a lot of texture to OVERKILL by her inclusion of PTSD and its effects. Marty's plight becomes not only understandable, but almost admirable as fights her way out of the depths she has sunk to.

The setting of Caprock Canyon, Texas, is perfect for OVERKILL. The bleakness of the atmosphere mirrors Marty's soul at the outset. As the story progresses, we begin to see the beauty in Caprock Canyon amidst all that starkness, just as Marty's inner beauty also begins emerging.

OVERKILL is a fantastic entry into the romantic suspense genre. Linda Castillo is an author I haven't read until now but OVERKILL will not be the last book I read by her. Highly recommended!

COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES

Giving in to rage cost Marty Hogan her career and ultimately forced her to relocate to a nothing town in the Texas panhandle to find work as a policewoman. Her tough as nails attitude is impressive to her new boss, Clay Settlemeyer, and he's had enough regrets to be willing to give her a second chance. Yet, bad news combined with incidents that look somewhat fishy make him wonder if the lady has PTSD. When the truth comes out, that the Russian mafia is out for her blood, terror will reign over their lives until justice is served.

**** Even without the minimalist love story, this would be a blazingly fast paced story guaranteed to satisfy your need for vicarious thrills. Marty is an unusual, take no prisoners, both tough and soft heroine who makes herself memorable not only to Clay, but to readers who wish for half her backbone. ****

Amanda Killgore

Linda Castillo has hit another homerun!! From the very beginning this book fills you with intrigue and suspense. Once you begin reading, you cannot put it down until it's complete. Ms. Castillo is an excellent story writer who has put together a great story of committment to the "cause" and romance. The characters come alive and she makes you feel as if you know them personally. Read this book. You won't be disappointed.

Marty Hogan was a good cop, one of Chicago's finest, until the day a horrific murderer pushed her over the edge. That day, Marty not only lost her job she had worked so hard for but incurred the wrath of the murderer's relatives who were out to exact revenge.

Having such a marked reputation Marty was lucky to find work in a small town in Texas, from Clay Settlemeyer, a police chief who believed in second chances. What Clay wasn't looking for was the attraction he felt towards the feisty curly headed officer carrying a huge load of baggage. But when Marty's ex-partner was brutally murdered, evidence started to unravel indicating Marty was next on a vicious killer's hit list.

*** I have two words that are wholly indicative to describe the impact of this story - whew and wow! Castillo has the reputation of writing some powerfully passionate and thrilling romantic suspense novels, and the imagery she captured in OVERKILL definitely held me spellbound.

Marty was a multifaceted heroine who had lost it after she witnessed the horror of what had happened to a nine year old child who had been raped and murdered by a sadistic monster. Her reaction was over the top, but (IMHO) in most peoples minds the beating she gave the man in custody was no more than what he deserved. The aftermath of her actions and how Marty reacted to it, making her hard as nails with a soft heart helped in creating this memorable heroine as well as creating a totally believable plot line.

Clay was a perfect match for Marty a survivor of the war in Iraq, he knew the signs of PTSD having been there himself and recognized them in her. Although, he believed in second chances he worried that he'd made a mistake in giving Marty a chance, when she called in an ambush that his department couldn't see any signs of.

Castillo played on the budding attraction as news of Marty's ex-partner's bizarre murder came to light and other attempts on her life continued, the pieces came together. Clay knew anyone near Marty could be in danger when they understood it was coming from the Russian mafia. Working on Clay's dilemma, the author played his passion for Marty and keeping her safe, while he attempted to protect his cherished daughter at the same time.

The tension and suspense held up remarkably well through the entire story making this a very fast paced book that was hard to put down. Marty, Clay, and the cast of memorable secondary characters all add up to making this one powerful story with thrills and chills aplenty!

Marilyn Rondeau, for www.ck2skwipsandkritiques.com

I enjoyed this book but it was abit slow in the middle. The beginning was great and so was the ending, but bogged a little in the middle. I am glad I stayed with it because it really was good.

Marty Hogan is a burnt out cop from Chicago. She lost it on video, with a child killer. She beat him almost to death and she is a small woman. But the fallout aka Rodney King, cost her the job and her reputation. Now the only one who will hire her is a small town PD in Texas.

Chief Clay Settlemeyer has been there himself, and without a second chance he wouldn't have made it either. So he takes a chance on an unknown cop. He knows the rest of the story, about the killing of the child. However, he doesn't expect to be attracted to Marty who is suffering from PDST. He has a young daughter to raise.

Marty tries to settle in but shortly is notified that her partner in Chicago has been murdered. She doesn't connect it to herself until almost to late. She is shot at and almost kiddnapped before the pieces start to come togather.

The story held my attention and as I said the beginning and the end were great.

I was quite impressed with both the breadth and depth of material that was covered in this book of ADO.NET with VB.NET 1.1. I work alot with DataSets and XML and not only was the traditional ADO.NET processes of retrieving and storing data with data readers and data adapters covered, but then goes head first into XML and datasets. It is actually not that easy to find some of this information on the internet and in such a well explained manner, thus this book is well worth its wait.
These are not general approach text, but code heavy examples.
A good understanding of ADO.NET would be appropriate before taking on this book as while it does a good job of explaining and providing examples, the pace is fairly rapid and is really targeted to the professional looking to up the skill level in ADO.NET. I have become a C# coder for the most part, but as you all know, changing the VB syntax to curly brackets is not that bad and thus this book serves the C# coder as well.

I would certainly recommend this book as a good example/reference/code snippets for ADO.NET 1.1.
Look for the ADO.NET 2.0 book as well.

Pro ADO.NET with VB.NET 1.1

I've been involved deeply with DB access applications for the last 5 years, and I've read many books on the subject. I've read some that were bad, and I've read some that were amazing. This book is definitely a good one.

Note that this not intended to be a full reference on the intricacies of the object model, but more of a "this is what it can do, and here's a practical example" type reference.

Our author does a great job of introducing the subject. This is intended to be book for someone with some experience; it is not a beginner's book. Mr. Malik writes the book with the perfect voice for his audience. I also found the inclusion of references to prior versions of ADO to be most useful, too. He even provides specific instances when it would be better to use prior (non-.net) versions of ADO since the functionality either doesn't exist, or works much better. This realistic approach to ADO.Net's abilities is consistent throughout the book.

The book most notably does a great job of "selling" the data reader object in .Net. This is an exciting, very powerful read-only connection that can be used for variety of purposes. Mr. Malik gives many useful examples (e.g., reporting) where this is *much* faster than standard methods. He demonstrates how to use the GetSchemaTable, and how to bind it to a data grid; a very nice way to get this information out of the database.

The code examples were very specific and addressed their topics very well; not a lot of fluff that serves little purpose. I find that shorter, more direct code snippets like these are more useful. Ideally, a code example should fit on one page, if at all possible.

I felt the chapter on creating your own data provider was interesting, but might have been a bit too advanced for most readers of this particular book. I also thought this was covered a little quickly, since it does only make up one chapter; I suspect an entire book could be written on the subject. It wasn't a bad idea to include it, but it was perhaps a bit too much icing on an otherwise very good cake.

So, if you are looking for a "down and dirty" intermediate practical usage reference, you need not look much farther than this.

I had a very narrow vision of what ADO.NET was until I read this book. ADO.NET is more than just DataSets and DataAdapters. It also involves XML, Data Services and Web Services. This book covers it all and more!

All the basics are covered. Chapters 1 through 5 explain Data Readers, DataSets (Typed and UnTyped) , Data Adapters and Data Schemas. I was impressed with the depth covered on each of these subjects.

What I didn't expect was the XML coverage. Chapter 6 covers everything you need to know about XML and how to use XML with DataSets.

Chapters 7 through 9 explain Constraints, Relations, Views, Transactions, and Mapping.

Data Services and Web Services each had full chapter. This was an unexpected bonus.

Performance and Security is covered by including optimizing, connection pooling message queuing, and basic security concerns. I always wondered what MSMQ was and now I know!

Also covered where InterOp and Migration from ADO.

The last chapter walks you through creating a MSMQ custom data provider. Very cool!

This book will make a fantastic resource book. This is definitely a must have for any level programmer!

The many authors of this book show how to use ADO if you are coding in a .NET environment, and need to access a database. The authors chose to have the example code in VB.NET 1.1. Though they might equally well have used examples in C#. Perhaps they felt that VB has a broader allure?

Conceptually, the role of ADO is simple. It is a layer between your application and the database. It gives you standard ways to read and write data, largely independent of the actual database. Java programmers will recognise this as similar to JDBC drivers. But while the concept is simple, the book shows that the details of how to use it from your application can be nontrivial.

To some of you, who are interested in developing Web Services, there is an entire chapter devoted to showing how you can do this. Where the Web Service has a database and its access of this database is mediated by ADO. The chapter tells how to build a Web Service from scratch, using ADO. A nice comprehensive approach that you should be able to easily adapt to a specific Web Service of your design.

As many of you probably have figured out, ADO.NET is probably my favorite piece of the .NET Framework. While many other facets of the framework were improvements over past paradigms, ADO.NET was unquestionably a 'differen't technology. Well, until now, I thought there were two must have books on ADO.NET, David Sceppa's ADO.NET Core Reference and Bill Vaughn's ADO.NET & ADO Examples and Best Practices in (VB.NET or C#). Now, there's a third. A while back, APress bought out a bunch of Wrox titles and redid them the Apress way. Every single one that I've gone through so far has been a DRAMATIC improvement over the original version and it looks like it's the case with this one too.

First off, some background information on "why" ADO.NET is such an important topic that it warrants buying at least 3 books on it. In the old days, you used to have a connected metaphor when you were using most data access technologies. For instance, previous versions of ADO required a persistent connection to a database to be of much use. But ADO.NET changed that in a fundamental way. Now, you can deal with database access in a Service Oriented way. You can retrieve data from a Text file, send it to a web service, then to an Oracle database then to a SQL Server database and you can wrap the whole thing in a transaction. You can easily build a service facade that interacts with a data access layer - if you want to change your back end you can simply change the data access layer and not touch your business objects. Distributed transactions, transactions that span multiple databases or providers are now a snap. You can grab data from a Web Service or a SQL Server database and never be able to tell where it came from and use virtually identical methods to retrieve and manipulate the data. And while there are so many areas that are greatly improved, new complications pop up. The old way of dealing with concurrency has changed and is somewhat more complicated for instance. On the whole, things are exponentially easier, particularly in the realm in Enterprise scenarios but the additional power means that you have to Think thing through a lot more. And the reason this book is so good is because 1) It's technologically correct (which was something quite rare in old Wrox books) 2) Because the more complex areas of ADO.NET are covered and covered quite well.

Including tables and indexes, the book is just over 600 pages. The back cover even features a picture of Sahil (looking very serious for someone as lively as him) on the back. I think everyone can agree that wrox's brillian idea of putting 10 people's faces on the cover of each book was a bit challenged as far as marketing goes.

Chapters I-IV are the elementary stuff - the what, why etc of ADO.NET and a brief run through on how the core objects work. That's obligatory in any book. After that it gets fun though, and fun quickly. If you don't understand XML, and understand it pretty well, then you don't understand ADO.NET. Chapters 5 & 6 discuss XML and its role in ADO.NET and on a scale of 1-10, I'd have to give them a solid 8. That's a really high number considering it spans only two chapters. Concise, thorough, to the point and interesting are three words that come to mind when descrbing those two chapters. When I say thoroug, I don't mean that 2 chapters exhaustively discuss XML -- that's the subject of MANY books. But by the time you are done, you will have a good enough understanding of how XML relates to ADO.NET and how to use it that you won't be a danger to yourself anymore.

Chapter 7, Constraints, Relations and Views is definintely one of the money chapters. When I was moving to Greenville, I had to take some time off from the newsgroups and when I came back, some guy named Sahil Malik was posting up a storm and unlike a lot of newcommers, his answers were rock solid. There's no doubt he has a strong understanding of the typical pitfalls of most developers learning ADO.NET and he gets you right through those. Way too many people think that DataAdapter.Fill is all you need to know and they invariably end up writing a LOT of code and doing a lot of Goofy stuff just because they don't know that there are existing objects that will do the job for them or they don't know how to use them. I personally have encountered a situation where 'professional' developers were called on to build a component which made extensive use of Typed Datasets. Mind you that there's a team of 5 'experienced' .NET Developers that were working on this. Well, one of the requirements was that the typed datasets needed to be filled (obviously) from a database. Their solution? Pass an Untyped dataset to the DALC, retrieve the data and manually loop through the returned dataset, table by table, and add the data to the typed dataset. Not surprisingly the code had a little disclaimer "We didn't implement the update code yet, we're having some trouble with it". This is so unbelievably poor that if it were done in the medical arena, some lawyer would be rich off of it. But this isn't atypical by any means. However if they had any understanding of Rowstate for instance, it's doubtful such a silly approach would have ever entered their minds. Similarly, they had some bad logic in their select statements and ended up pulling back data that, when copied to the typed dataset, violated the integrity constraints on the dataset. So they simply used a Try/Catch and at the exception. It filled correctly, but think of the unnecessary overhead associated with this. Think of all of the extra code necessary to do it this way. If they had read Chapter 7 of this book, I can assure you they would have known enough to know that this approach was a recipe for disaster and after reading Chapter 5, they would have known how to use a Typed dataset correctly. (Note to all new ADO.NET Programmers: Just because you see "DataSet" in the parameter list on DataAdapter.Fill() - typed dataset ARE datasets so you can safely pass them in. They obviously didn't understand inheritance but that's a different story. In addition this chapter discusses one of my favorite objects, the DataView

Chapter 8 delves into transactions and there's plenty of good stuff in here. Using a simple transaction is, well, simple. Using distributed transactions is another story (at least until ADO.NET 2.0 and the TransactionScope arrive). Well, in all honesty, in most enterprise scenarios, simple transactions aren't going to cut it for you. He goes through some more complex transaction examples and does a darned good job. (Obviously using COM+ and distributed transactions couldn't possibly be discussed fully in one chapter, but there's still a LOT to work with here).

Chapter 9 deals with Mapping. Again, it's a good discussion but there's only so much you can do with Mapping. However if the people above read this chapter before coding there 'solution' , I doubt they would have made the mistakes they did either. Mapping is a sleeper of a subject but important nonetheless. The Data Adpater Configuration wizard uses it extensively in the code it generates, and you'd be well advised to understand what it does and how it works. A lot of new developers use the wizard without understanding how it works - which is NEVER a good thing. David Sceppa used great Stevie Wonder lyrics to drive this point home "When you believe in things that you don't understand, Then you suffer, Superstition ain't the way" Wonder
Chapters 10-14 are the Advanced issues covering things like web services, security, performance etc. I personally have read a lot on the subjects but I still found them interesting. He does a little more on XML processing and SQL Server/XML in particular which is definitely good stuff to say the least. I'm not really devling into the details but that's not because it's not well covered - it's simply that a lot of that information is pretty technical and it's hard to get into the details of it without getting too technical. Besides, I want to save room for Chapter 15.

Without a doubt this is the HOME run of the book. Sahil pulled a rabbit out of a hat with this one. He goes through the process of making your own custom ADO.NET Provider. In so doing, he discusses the interfaces that each of the core objects are built on and what they do. You simply can not get out of this chapter without having a really firm grip on what ADO.NET is all about. In all of the books that I've read, this chapter has to be one of my favorites, hands down. So what provider does he build? A MessageQueue provider. Combining a killer topic like MessageQueuing with building a provider was nothing short of brilliant. He could have wrapped things up 100 different ways, none of which would have come close to this on pure coolness. Don't know about MSMQ or MSMQT yet? Well, get with the program - the stuff is pure gold and I can just about guarantee that you will find a great place to use it. Combining the two subjects was just great. I had thought about writing an article on building a provider using the File System but this is 100 times cooler than that idea. It's technical, complex and very in depth - and the icing on a very good cake.
All in all this is one of my favorite books - mainly because I love ADO.NET coupled with the fact that Sahil just straight up kicked a33 in it. Totally interesting. Tons of 'real world' stuff. No detectable fluff. If you want to learn ADO.NET correctly or want to understand it better - I can vouch for Suhil's guru credentials in both writing and ADO.NET! You won't be disappointed.

This book just caught my attention for some reason. After reading the intro, I was hooked. I could not put this book down and the seemingly neatly tied up result is anything but. This story will keep you guessing until the very end.

Supposedly JIllian Hoffman has a deal to make a movie out of this novel. I hope so, it will be a great movie.

Wow! There aren't too many books that grab me right from the begining like Retribution did. Being an author I feel this is key to the success of any book. Ms. Hoffman did a good job of holding my interest throughout the story and tripped me up a few times when I thought I had figured it out. I don't have a lot of time to sit and read but I made the time for this book. Congratulations on a great story. I look forward to reading your next book "Last Witness".

I had never heard of Ms. Hoffman before I picked up this book. I was looking for something to read and saw the discount. I could not put this book down. I took it everywhere I went to finish it. She did a great job. One slight critique - you can solve the mystery without reaching the end "...If you know what to look for". Its still an excellent read. I look forward to reading "Last Witness". I'm getting it as soon as I finish writing this review.

And they say it's her first effort? Couldn't put it down and sent it on to my husband and girlfriends.....

When i first checked this book out, i looked at the werid font and short chapters and thought hmm this doesnt look that good. But i decided to give it a shot and was soo glad i did. I absolutely love it!! I read it in one sitting. C.J Townsend is a prosecutor in a case involving a man who is accused of killing dozens of women. During the trial, she finds out that the man she is prosecuting is the same man who raped her 12 years ago and changed her life. She wants justice for the women and herself, but finds out that there was no probable cause to arrest the man. She is torn between her legally duty as a prosecutor and her moral duty to herself. This book is excellent. I felt the characters pain, frustration, and anger. I loved this book so much, i went out and bought it! I recommend it to anyone who likes mystery reads because this one is a thriller!!

I bought the book used with the software -- I had a terrible time attempting to load the software -- it happened to be an older version and never would load.... so I bought a new book with software through Amazon.com and that version worked wonderfully..... I loaded 770+ names and addresses into the database software and the software printed my mailing labels. The book was great and gave me the information I needed - it couldn't force my fellow classmates to attend the reunion though! The one thing I would stress to anyone planning a reunion is to get a source of money up front -- a slush fund from the previous reunion or a Class officer willing to help with postage and reservation money to secure your facility banquet room..... that was the worst hump for me. We did have a successful reunion though -- with only 56 of the 770+ former students --- Besides the book I also used the website Classmates.com --- I was the reunion contact and that enabled me to send 'alerts' to all classmates and involved me creating only one E-Mail message and then sent it out to all the classmates in my class...... that was a great help along with the book!!!

The Reunion Planner has a lot of good ideas for many kinds of reunions. This version of the book is not the current version. The software included with the book would not work with Windows Xp. I called the publisher. The customer service manager offered to send the latest disk free of charge. They hope that we will buy additional products from them in the coming months. When I received the updated disk the next day, the software worked splendidly. Since I bought a used book, this glitch is not surprising and acceptable. I would have paid considerably more for a new book.

After reading this book, "The Reunion Planner", I sent them the following email, which I believe tells the most honest review that I could give this book.

"Thank you very much for taking the time and energy to create The Reunion Planner book, software, and this web site. I checked out your book from the Bettendorf Public Library. I honestly believe that anyone who tries to plan a very successful reunion without your book is crazy. It has everything you need. I was so impressed that I visited this web site just so I could order the book and the software for myself."

For those of you who have not read this book it covers family reunions, high school reunions, and even military reunions. The Reunion Planner gives you step-by-step instructions on how to plan your reunion. It starts with what you should be doing about one year before the reunion and concludes with the follow-up work after a reunion that will make it easier for you or someone else to plan the next reunion.

"The Library Journal" just gave "The Reunion Planner" book and software program a rave review. It ended with "The Bottom Line: Anyone planning a reunion should get their hands on "The Reunion Planner" as soon as possible: it will save you enormous amounts of time and effort and ensure a successful event. A wonderful resource, enthusiastically recommended for all library collections and individuals with reunions in mind. Libraries need two copies--one for reference and one to circulate."
by Cheryl LaGuardia, "The Library Journal"

THIS BOOK PROVIDED ME WITH SOME GREAT IDEAS. I HAD NEVER PLANNED A REUNION BEFORE. THIS BOOK MADE IT VERY EASY. THE SOFTWARE IS GREAT TOO!

A great book! A revolutionary book. Yes, a sign of it's times and yet very relevant to this time in respects to action and freedom, long lost ideals in today's Right wing conservative society, at least by the majority. Although it was only a segment then too, it was a greater segment amidst a large sea of liberal tolerance and open dialogue. Obviously there was much Right conservativism then too, and staunch power control conservativism within the Democratic liberal front as seen by the whole Chicago convention affair, Mayor Daley, the brutality of the cops and so forth. Even on St. Marks Place in NYC, Hoffman speaks of the heavy police presence and harassments. So much of what is written at that time applies to today and it's overkill and abuses of privacy and freedom, all excused under the new "war on terror" banner flying through out and it's blinded patriots and nationalists.

It's the vision of liberty and the idea of the abolishment of property and ownership and yet this is not a book on communist maxims and tight political formulas, not at all. It is a book about the freedom of individual expression, autonomy, and most of all creativity in action. The heroes and influences are Che Chevarra, Castro and Cuba, Camus, McLuhan. The times have changed, things have regressed back to the masses glued to their ego roles as sole personal identification, taking too seriously, resulting in additional laws, loss or private rights, and most of all wars. Same as then it is now, except there were a great group of young minds that had the doors of their perceptions opened up through psychedelics and were able to see through and above the superficial roles that today are taken so seriously, the actions of intolerance, exclusiveness, cultural power domination, imperialism and internal restrictions masked under hidden agendas.

Except they the MOB, Yippies and so forth, were so radical and yet, that is what is needed in any revolution. Although the harassment that comes with it with outright false charges and even beatings applied by the cops and the government that it questions whether it is all worth it. It is, and it isn't, at least someone has to speak up. I am so grateful to the people of today such as Michael Moore who dare speaks up. And his is attacked and criticized for it immensely. Even mothers who children have died from war and are now protesting the Iraq war are met with severe opposition from George W. Bush nationalists and Christian religious fundamentalists.

Personally speaking, I wish there were perceptive openness today in people and those that spoke out against the police domination and conservative aggression played by the power people and moralist absolutists, but I prefer hermitude whenever possible and thus avoid all confrontations and abuses by those with power. Perhaps that is a cop-out, but it is safer and in reality, paradise is within and so is hell. There is also power in numbers and when the majority is under the spell of the propaganda of the leaders then the fight is that much harder. This book, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Peel, John Lennon, Dave Dillinger, & many more go down as great revolutionaries for their times and this book, despite being radical in many ways, expounds much profound wisdom.

At the end of the book is a reprint of the pamphlet "F**k The System," which was all about dropping out, as in Leary's "Turn On, Tune In and Drop Out," it is about living without money, finding free items and ways to survive. I looked it up on amazon and found only one used copy available through a private seller. Would you believe he/she is asking $750.00 for it!!! Abbie said anyone who tries to make money off it is a communist, lol

In his first book, Abbie Hoffman gave us an almost comical view of the revolution which he helped to jumpstart through the late 1960s. Through the humour, which has always been one of Abbie's strongpoints, you do see the sincerity of the man, and his cause (mainly civil rights, and anti-war) as well as his idea of what america (always spelled with a little "A") is supposed to be. I can't help but wonder though...what the movie was like.

This isn't just a book that wakes you up. It grabs you by the shoulders, throws you against the wall, and hurls a bucket of water over your head while shouting "Look! Look! Look around you and see all the amazing things that you can do with your life!" Aside from being an engaging account of the events leading up to and including the protests around the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968, "Revolution" is a shot in the arm and the head for anyone needing hints on how to jump-start their brain as well as the country. Some of the free tips are obviously out of date and no longer do-able, but Abbie Hoffman's humor and in-your-face criticism are both sadly missed and badly needed in these days of seemingly neverending corruption and governmental malignancy. Hoffman's sort of thinking will never go out of style, and "Revolution" is the perfect way to begin one's path down the road to the 60's under- and over-ground, which he tours with a flair and wit one could only hope all others acquire in the process.

This was the first writings of Hoffman I had ever read. It rewrites history and covers things I had never been expossed to. It is a dark book with energy and spunk. It reflects the things we are going through now with the same type of goverment tricks. We must take back of country from the frat boys who are running it into the ground.

Abbie knew what he was fighting against ... but I don't think he had a clue about what he was fighting for.

I admire anyone willing to get in the ring so to speak... But anyone who's hero is Fidel Castro and also believes in "individual freedom" needs to have his head examined.

Abby thought that freedom is the freedom for the ego to move through life without obstruction. Needless to say, this is a child's view of freedom.
He never understood that in life one must learn reckon with sail, wind and tide ... and freedom is only found when one learns to do that.

Abbie merely spit into the wind... and got angry when it "had the audacity" to blow back on him.

If he had lived longer, perhaps he would have learned to pick and choose his fights with a little more discrimination.

Inspired by all the 5-stars rating this book got , I had quite high expectations. I was looking forward to find a few original ideas about the very demanding subject of "Spontaneity" as a human source of inspiration, play and selffullfilment.

If you approach this book from this angle, you probably are going to be disappointed.

"Ritual and Spontaneity ..." happens to be just the title of one of 10 chapters of the book. The chapters contain detailed analysis of concrete moments of the psychoanalytic process and the psychiatrist's possiblity to step out of orthodox rules of neutrality.
If that special case of spontaneity is all you are interested in, this book should be enjoyable.

A brilliantly argued, thoroughly reasoned argument for greater use of the symmetry/asymmetry dialectic in contemporary analysis, beautifully illustrated by lengthy and complex clinical examples.

Hoffman has written a suberb book on cliincal theory and process. He not only has a deep understanding and respect for psychoanalytic schools of the past, but he is extending contempory psychoanalytic theory and practice and does so with creativity, humanity and eloquence. The dialectical-constructivist view elaborated upon in this book includes many features. Three features that have particular interest for me are the interplay of the givens of reality and the latitute for interpretive choices, the dialectic of meaning and mortality, and the dialectic between noninterpretive and interpretive interactions. Hoffman provides lenghty clinical illustrations that have had considerable impact on the way I understand interpersonal interactions. I am making this book a required text for my clinical seminar at my psychoanalytic institute. I think my students will benefit greatly from the honesty and talent revealed in Ritual and Sponteneity in the Psychoanalytic Process. I certainly have learned a great deal from reading this book.

Careful, elegant reasoning and diligent research combined with flashes of humor and irony. It is a very clear and readable presentation of a "constructivist" point of view--that the patient and the analyst co-construct reality rather than the detached analyst objectively uncovering the truth; which challenges many basic assumptions about the role and the manner of the therapist.

Hoffman pushes social constructivist thinking into realms where few have attempted to tread. Beyond his uniquely subtle, ironic portrayal of the process of social construction, Hoffman takes on an even greater challenge: explaining why--within our subjective worlds of (constructed) meanings--there inevitably lurks a universal tension over the possibility of meaninglessness, a potential disorder within any sense of order. His explanation pushes constructivism into an existential realm--to the "horizon" where the awareness of the certainty of death (and the potential insignificance of life) exist in dialectical counterpoint with our constructed worlds of meaning. Most dramatically, by moving contemporary psychoanalytic discourse into this region, Hoffman is able to re-frame our understanding of many human dilemmas--from the child's experience of the role of parents to the patient's experience and expectations of the therapist/analyst. Caveat lector: you may never again see many familiar issues in the same way.

At first, this book was a little hard to get into. I had become so attached to the main character Lucien in the first book that it was hard to be following a different main character, Georgia. As I got further into the book, I became more and more entranced in it until I just couldn't put it down, reading the last 150 pages in one sitting. All of the plot twists and point of view changes make this a must have on anyone's reading list.

In the second installment of the Stravaganza series, we meet Georgia: a tom-boy school girl who is the newest person to join the Stravagante. Georgia soon becomes closely involved with the Stellata, the biggest horse race in Talia. There's rumor of a legendary winged horse that has been born to one of the contestants, but is true? And will the di Chimici find the horse and use it to tighten their grip on Talia forever?

Although this is not quite as good as the first, it is still really good. In addition to seeing old favorite characters (inlcuding Lucien from the first book) we meet and follow several new ones as well giving the book a fresh, new quality. Also a new feature, we meet several di Chimici and are able to see more into the lives of these powerful political plotters. A satisfying continuation of the series, don't miss it.

This book is the best book I have ever read. Both the first and the second one are a must read book.

I raced through this book and its predecessor. They were both excellent; this one especially so. I really enjoyed it the first and second times through. It was easy to get into, had a followable plot and a satisfying conclusion. Can't wait for the next installment!

City of Stars was difficult if not impossible to sink into while reading. It seems strained and forced, and is commonly on the confusing side. The many characters switching between lands and worlds are hard to keep up with. The first was very well-written, on the contrary. The sequel, however, was alright, but very confusing.

This is an incredible book for beginners as well as seasoned orchid growers. It does a wonderful job of covering the botany, history, and culture. The author has done an incredible job of keeping your interest. It can also be used as a quick reference. When I first purchased the book I did so to trouble shoot an ailing vanda. I was able to diagnose and cure the problem in a couple of weeks. After reading the book I realized there is so much interesting history relating to vandas. This book has given me great insite into the potential of these beautiful orchids. I have many orchid books but this is by far my most appreciated and useful reference. The photographs are breath taking. This book will help anyone successfully grow vandas.

This is a great reference to use for breeding and cultivating Vanda, good photographs and very well written.

If you are a hard core orchid breeder then this book might be right up your alley... but, if your are interested in orchids for other casual reasons this title might be too technical to enjoy. I just read through the first chapter: "The Discovery of Vandas and Their Introduction to the West." Sounds like there could be great tales of early botanical exploration and adventure... it is nothing but a long list of botanists' names, dates and enough latin to choke a Roman... page after page littered with itlalics and brackets and parenthesis. Yuch! Sure, the pictures are pretty, but they're all on glossy paper in the middle of the book, so any hope of helping the reader with a well placed illustration is lost. The book is jam packed with information and facts about culture, breeding and botany. But, be forwarned that the text, written by a Phd., reads like a reaserch dissertation.

The author, Martin Motes, is an expert in Vanda culture and propagation. The book is very well written and contains high quality photographs of Vanda species and hybrids. Anyone interested in Vandaceous orchids, whether beginner or advanced, will thoroughly enjoy this book.

This is a extraordinary book for anyone who is starting to grow vandaceous. It will teach you tricks that you will not find in any other book.Everyone that buys this book is lucky enough to be able to share the many many years that Martin Motes has adquired since he first started growing orchids.

I have read several biographies of Einstein, some of which are among my list of all-time favorite books. None however, approach the intimacy or sense of personal connection as Hoffmann and Dukas' 1972 classic "Creator and Rebel." Perhaps because of Helen Dukas' influence, this book contains perhaps the most intimate look at the man and, thanks to Hoffmann, the one of the clearest explanations of his science. Though other biographies are also must-reads for Einstein devotees (Folsing and Frank, for instance), this one goes to the top of my list.

Why is this book so good? Its first phrase is:"We sketch in this book the story of a profoundly simple man." This could be done only by friends. And friends the authors are. Banesh Hoffman, a collaborator of Einstein's, happens to be a great writer, possibly the best as books for the layman are concerned. Helen Dukas, the other author, was Einstein's secretary for many years. The book is very beautifully produced, full of nice photographs. Relativity is really explained. A labor of love which deserves much more popularity.

One cannot seperate the man from his work and this biography branches into other people who touched upon A. Einstein as well as his science. The incomparable simplicity of his brilliant thought is driven home in the discussion of AT-LAB and GRAV-LAB. The story may be known or not. It deserves good re-telling. This audio book is well done and special thanks to the reader who handles the math examples (less than a handful) with precise language, grace, and accuracy. My complaint is that the book is too short. I woud have liked more of the interaction with subject in his personal life. But still a solid 8.

not to say that einstein wasn't exceptionally clever, but i found the tone of this book to be leaning a bit to far to the 'worship einstein as a minor deity' side of things. any potential cause to think less of old albert is glossed over in an unapealing way. the examples that come to mind are the minimal treatment that poincare's accomplishments regarding relativity recieve, and the minimal information on his divorces. i wish the authors had stepped down from the altar of the holy einstein long enough to give him a human treatment. even the title is a bit much. creator and rebel? it would be funny if it weren't sadly earnest.

This is a great book for health concerns. It has some very good information.

We own 2 llamas and don't have any other experience with livestock. This book has helped us many times. One time one of our llamas was shivering and sure enough, I looked up "shivering" and found out that llamas can get hypothermia! So followed some of the suggestions and came through that little excitement just fine. This book has lots of suggestions and illustrations and helps me know what to do for just about anything that comes up for our llama "boys".

We have used this book to spot healt problems, and as a guideline in every day care. The authors appear to have great knowledge regarding the care of lamas. The illustrations are precise. A must in every lama owners library.

This book is a MUST for every lay (non-veterinary or non-medical background) llama or alpaca owner. Clear and comprehensive information about basic llama health and care.

My only reservation in recommending this book is the outdated emphasis (by sheer volume of information) on how to make more llamas, which is neither appropriate for beginners nor an ethical activity considering the overabundance of cheap, grade, and crossbred llamas today. Likewise, the outdated misinformation about how young male llamas may grow up to misdirect their territorial aggression at humans (unhelpfully labeled "berserk" and attributed only to handled male crias in the book) may lead naive readers astray.

Buy this book for the terrific care and health information; look elsewhere for llama behavior and training information.