Johnson Books

How you sing the song of so many women... It was awesome. A definite page turner. A phenomenal read that hit home. I couldn't put it down. Thank you for the ride MJ! Awesome!!

I was totally caught up in this book and read it completely in one sitting! Thank you for sharing the events of your life. We all have stolen moments and I am not sure that I would have the courage to share mine. This is a great testimony that could help heal others who are struggling with their own stolen moments.

I could not put it down from the moment I turned the first page. The ability to share the personal love and the pain caused from a relationship in your first book is absolutely remarkable. Opening up to this degree, personally, not only takes courage, but also is a testament to your trust in Almighty God...a lesson for us all! I look forward to the "rest of the story"!

"Stolen Moments" is an excellent novel. This book should not only reference Male-Female relationships, but it reference just plain ole friendships; because alot of times in our lives we spend so much of our time trying to fit our lives into the lives of other people that is not even interested in us.
These are stolen Moments away from our own lives, that we will never be able to recapture again, even though we learn from them.
If we begin to focus on what is important from the beginning then we would not be looking for countless moments that we can't recapure. Our main focus is God of course and we should look for things and people that will bring productivity to our lives.

I had the opportunity to read "Stolen Moments", once I started I couldn't stop. I finished the book in one day. This book really makes you think of all the time you say "what if I would have done this instead of that". I enjoyed the entire book. This is a recommend read. Oprah, this one is a definite for the Book Club.

Marlon (Tony) Ball
Charleston SC

very good,worth reading,written by various people.....
enjoyable,gets you thinking,nice photographs too.
As you may or may not know African coyly hair is quite unique in vision, texture, behaviour and probably in chemical make up too. Coily haired women around the world, go to the most extremes in terms of spending.
(Spending time, spending pain and the spending price to have African coily hair styled)
A hairstyle that we believe looks good or will help us to become socially and economically advanced.
Or maybe for our own self-esteem and maybe to attract the charms of a love interest. Either way your hair is a reflection of the state of your consciousness, your internal beliefs and your relationship with the world.

This book is like having group therapy or interviewing other women,but it is not all black women's views.I am reviewng it because I think it is worth a read.

As you may or may not know African coily hair is quite unique in vision, texture, behaviour and probably in chemical make up too. Coily haired women around the world, go to the most extremes in terms of spending.
(Spending time, spending pain and the spending price to have African coily hair styled)
A hairstyle that we believe looks good or will help us to become socially and economically advanced.
Or maybe for our own self-esteem and maybe to attract the charms of a love interest.
Either way, psychologically and philosophically I believe that your hair is a reflection of the state of your consciousness, your internal beliefs and your relationship with the world.
What about exploring physics through african hair?
For example how much pressure, gravity and tension and tearing do we put our hair through by combing it?
let alone excessive harsh combing.
Mathematically speaking how many of you readers can tell me how many curls/coils per inch your hair has, and does it vary in coil and moisture?
Next question:When does the nature of the hair change and why?
(i know it does!)
It seems to me all these books on afro hair are good and I welcome it, but we still need to be more informed and they all seem to need better editing, just like Black American beauty magazines.I must campaign for better grammar and less air brushed photos!!!
It is as if we like to see ourselves falsely rather than the reality of what we are...
Black women need to demand more scientific reasoning from our books and be less competitive over black men which only fuels their egos and as a result probably creates more baby-mothers!!!
Sorry but I had to vent out my opinions.

I give this book four stars for the effort and time invested as a writer I know it takes time...
I maintain that it is still worth reading,more than any carcinogenic chemical so called hair treatment that you pay for.

Anyway what do I know I am a black african british woman!!!!
Most of you Americans think we in Britain have no trains or any kind of progressive development!!!
Anyway if I wrote my book answering my questions that I put to you how many of you would buy it?

This is a wonderful book for anyone who would like to explore the issues that Black women face vis a vis our hair from a variety of viewpoints; not just the "politicaly correct" ones.

The book was all that, very positive, and at times emotional (I'm thinking of the passage where a father is trying to figure out how to braid his daughter's hair since her mother is across the country. His trying, and eventually getting it right, turned into bonding sessions for them. It was beautiful.) Of course the book had my favorite culture critic, bell hooks, and as usual she gave me a new persepective: to look at the whole "perm" phenomena as initiation into womanhood. Just about any Black woman who was on the brink of adolescence and was dying to get a perm should relate to that. I did. That's what this book does, it helps Black women to see just how similar our trials have been with our hair; and it's not just a generational thing. Black women from 50 to 80 years ago had the same issues and thoughts Black teenagers have today. Everyone remembers hot combs and Goody pink rollers and Royal Crown grease. Looking back many women had feelings of remembered pain, and not just from the burns on the tips of their ears and on their scalps, but inside their hearts for our collective struggle with an unattainable beauty standard.
What I also admired about this book was that it touched on the subject of hair and erotic intimacy. There was a whole section devoted to hearing the responses of Black women and men when confronted with the bedroom question: Can I run my fingers through your hair? It showed a depraved relation to our hair. In order to get and keep that salon fresh look, sleek and shiny, it must not be touched (by you and most especially your lover). Hair does not bring pleasure in the sense of us luxuriating in how it feels. How can you when it's not even yours? Weave. A woman tells the story of a young man with whom she was getting intimate with, and he wanted to run his fingers through her seemingly long shiny tresses. The moment was interrupted when he felt the hard tracks on her scalp before she could effectively slap his touch away. "You have to train these men early," another woman admonishes, "not to touch the hair." A man married for over 20 years complains of his wife's hair roller pins always poking him when she's "going down on him." He also hates, but has gotten used to, her wearing a head scarf anytime they make love. It is described in the book as Black folks having perpetual menege trios, he, she, and the head scarf. Another man wakes up to his girlfriend's "100% Korean Hair" all over the bed and floor after an especially heated night; he later ends up paying $200 dollars to have it all put back in again. The women speak of not even wanting to touch their own hair, refering to it being "hard as a rock" from gels and hair sprays. It's all in the name of a certain look, the processed one. (It's this look that lured their mates in the first place right?) It's sad that Black women talk about orchestrating certain sex positions around not messing up their fresh 'do. "You don't even think about it after while." They compensate not allowing their men to touch their hair with confidence and boldness in their performance, "It's so good he won't even be thinking about touching my hair."

I love this book. It isn't just politics or just us behind closed doors. Every possible reference to what is done to our hair is mentioned, even going bald. A Muslim woman opened my eyes to how not showing her hair takes away from having to compete for attentions based on beauty standards of hair, by being above them. It reminds us that as women, we shouldn't let physical beauty define us, even though most times it does, and we let it. "Ms. Strand" tells her tale with humor, cultural criticism, African storytelling, and 'round tha way truthfulness, barring nothing from the conversation. Truly, Tenderheaded should not be passed over.

I expected to really enjoy this book, but was disappointed. Some of the stories/essays were very good, but some of them were poorly written and/or could have done with some serious editing. It might have been better if some of them had been omitted: the book would probably have been half as long, but the overall quality would have been significantly improved.

I was also disappointed by the way the book was laid out. It seemed jumbled and poorly conceived. Photos, illustrations and cartoons/comics were seemingly thrown in randomly, with little context or relation to the surrounding content. The graphic content of the book was good, but the layout just did not display it to full advantage.

The idea behind this book was a good one, but the execution could have been a little bit better.

This is a very unique book. I have to say I LOVED IT! My being a young black woman, all the stories hit close to home. This book gave a non-bias look at black women's hair, and black culture all around the world including here in America. It gave many view points, from men women, blacks and even whites. I recommed this book to anyone who is confused about their hair and themselves. Nappy is defiantly Happy!!!! Peace.

Bob Johnson is one of my heroes. When I first purchased this book, I read it straight through. The next day I read it straight through, again! Since my purchase, I have read this book 5 times, and never tire of reading it. Bob Johnson was the "All-American-Boy," and fighter pilot. I wish that I could've met him. It would have been one of the highlights of my life. I hope someday that I will be able to shake the hands of men like Mr. Johnson, and thank them for their courage and commitment to freedom.

No matter what you say, the best WWII fightyer pilot memoir ever written was The Big Show, by Pierre Clostermann. That said, Johnson comes as a close competition. Written with the aid of Martin Caidin, it is a gripping book.

As someone who has never been tested in the air...I have nothing but admiration for those who have and excelled. What it must have been like to get up at dawn and know that today might be your last? I can not imagine the strength of character those like Robert Johnson must have had?
This book is fantastic ...the Thunderbolt was a massive airplane and took skill and courage to fly over europe in weather that most pilots today would not even go up in period ...even with all kinds of radar and instruments that are the norm today. Read this book and honor a man to who we owe a huge debt.The book is one of finest written about the subject and you will feel as though you are there in the cockpit living it along with Robert!
I am humbled by the courage of those like Robert and this book brings all that in clear focus!Buy it and you will not put it down!

Thunderbolt! was the absolute best book I have read. Why? A good question, it is an extrodinary story of a man and the war that changed the world. This book focuses on world war 2, I am very eager to learn more about the causes and effects of the war, this book helped me learn alot more about fighter planes, and warfare of the U.S and Germany during that time period, (1942-1945) it also had alot of things that you could picture in your mind. "Thunderbolt" is defnitly not for young readers, it has many challinging words, and it was kind of hard to understand. On a scale of 1 to 10, I give this book a 10.

Mark

Republic's P-47 Thunderbolt was a WWII monster of a fighter. Fast, well armored, with heavy firepower, it was a nightmare for its lighter opponents. One of America's leading aces of the European theater, Robert Johnson, takes the reader on combat missions where the outcome is always tenuous. Through 1943 and into 1944, the P-47 was our frontline escort fighter until the P-51 arrived, with its longer range capability. But it was the "Jug" that chewed up Hitler's Luftwaffe and led the way to the air superiority that made the Normandy invasion possible.

Major Johnson came out the victor over 28 opponents and his story as told here is one of valor and determination on both sides of this awesome conflict. Highly recommended.

i read the book less than 6 months ago and have turned back around and am reading it for the second time now-- i also have given 4 copies away -- this book is a gentle & loving way toward understanding the pull of the soul as soul moves us through perceived difficulties in order for us to continue on our path - it is the only thing that i have found to give myself forgiveness for having fallen in love with someone & to understand why --- this book is a gift

To read Trebbe Johnson's The World is a Waiting Lover is to embark on a treasure hunt of incredible dimensions. As any good book, this one captivates with its beautiful and impeccable language and its pungent content, while inviting the reader to look deeply within. This book is about "internal affairs," about finding the beloved within. Its richness is such that each chapter seems to look through ever-wider lenses, aiming at what we call humanness, but most importantly the author invites us to transcend that, to enter the complexities of our transpersonal experiences. Johnson draws from different traditions to bring us face-to-face with our need for self-love which turns into love for all that exists. The book has a coherent narrative like a good novel with a plot that enchants us because it portrays the beauty and depth of ordinary things. The main character, of course, is the soul and her counterpart is the reader. The use of different archetypal images illustrates a need to go back to our sources and symbols to find coherence and discernment, to live a life full of love and compassion for the world, starting with the one within and then moving outwardly. I can't imagine someone reading this book without feeling the hand of transformation rearranging both inner and outer worlds.

I enjoy Trebbe's approach to the concept of the divine as a lover; it has unravelled for me some of the mysteries of desire, passion, and what lights me up as a creative person. I also just read her article in the current edition of Parabola and loved that as well! I can't wait until September, as I'm registered for a 3-day retreat/workshop Trebbe is offering at Diana's Grove near St. Louis.

I bought this book based on the positive reviews. The beginning caught my attention but then my interest quickly faded. The writing is dull. Strangely, this book is about discovering your own hidden desires but the author is maddenly secretive and emotionally retentive. This could be a uselful book to some. I can see how this book would appeal to those who were brought up in really restrictive home/times. It's a good effort but if you really want to read a book about deepening the love of love read Thomas Moore's book 'Soul Mates'. And if you're looking for something to heighten your appreciation of the senses read Diane Ackerman's 'The Natural History of the Senses'.

Trebbe Johnson's "The World Is a Waiting Lover" is an intimate, soulful feast that takes the reader on the author's own Quest for the Beloved within the context of her considerable research into "the myths of many lands, fleshed out by mystics, cosmologists, psychologists, and poets...," including Mechtilde of Magdeburg, Tagore, Rousseau, Abraham Maslow, and Brian Swimme, among others.

Although her story is timeless, it has its temporal beginning in the San Juan mountains of southern Colorado when the mysterious and elusive "Lucas," an apprentice on a vision quest Johnson is co-guiding, tells her, "I am truly and completely in love with you." How the author hears these words sends her on a journey that continues today through this book and her workshops, vision quests, and talks on both sides of the Atlantic. For the whole story, you'll have to read the book, and I highly recommend that you do.

Readers who open themselves up to Johnson's skill as both soul guide and lover of language will find her apparent prose shape-shifting into poetry throughout the narrative. "Immaculate Love Affair" and "emotional anaphylactic shock" are two of the more startling images, but every page seems to offer at least one sentence like, "It was a creature of the heights, this waterfall, like a rare species of mountain goat or wilderness nymph, beings who thrive in certain wild, remote niches and never venture anywhere else" (251).

In telling us her story, Trebbe Johnson invites and indeed dares us to embrace the world like a waiting lover, to recognize the Beloved and the Escort who will seize and guide us, and to open ourselves to both the allurement and rapture of that which most deeply calls our name.

I love all of Maureen Johnson's books and this one is no exception. Her protagonists are all really easy to relate to and the settings are always imaginitive. The romantic plot line is always well written and combines well with other plot lines. Girl at Sea should not be missed!

Girl At Sea by Maureen Johnson would be a great summer time book because it kept me interested through out the entire book. There were some chapters that seemed to drag on and on. I did like this book better than 13 little blue envelopes because I felt like I connect more with the characters. Also, because the author was so descriptive in describing her characters, I could picture them and their personality with all the detail. I especially love the last few chapters because they make you so sure of what's going to happen but then all the sudden it would take a socking twist causing you to feel so dumb that you couldn't catch it before. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone. This book is a must read for summer!

Clio Ford has lived an interesting life. She became famous at age 12. Her parents are divorced. And she has a tattoo, just to name a few things.

Now, forced to spend a summer with her insane father and his research team on a boat on the Mediterranean Sea, she just might go mad. Especially since she knows they're looking for something...something they refuse to tell Clio anything about.

GIRL AT SEA is simply fantastic. As usual with all of Maureen Johnson's books, the plot is unique and nothing like anything you'll find in most other teen books these days. Clio is lively, fun, adventurous, and witty.

So if you care to read about paper hats, crazy parents, big boats, weird tattoos, lost artifacts, romance, and LOTS of jellyfish, what are you waiting for? Join in on all the nautical fun! Maureen Johnson will leave you desperate for more.

Reviewed by: The Compulsive Reader

Clio Ford is a seventeen-year-old art store employee in Pennsylvania. Well, at least she was going to be until her mom went to Kansas for the summer and Clio was dragged along with her dad and his girlfriend, Julia, during their search for an ancient stone, which holds an enormous amount of knowledge, in the shores of Italy. Although reluctant to go at first, Clio uncovers some amazing secrets about the underwater Mediterranean. I think this book is adventurous because Clio finds adventure in this book, and I felt like I was in the middle of an adventure when I was reading it. I enjoyed Girl at Sea, and I especially liked the discovering aspect of it. The discoveries made by Clio over the summer include those of the lost stone, her dad, and herself. These defiantly add to the book. I would recommend Girl at Sea by Maureen Johnson to any girl in grades 7-11.

Landlubbers and sea lovers alike will enjoy taking a trip with this Girl At Sea. Maureen Johnson once again successfully blends comedy and drama to create an intriguing, realistic story.

The Girl in question is Clio, who wears her heart and her scars on her sleeve. When she was eleven years old, she and her father created a board game called Dive! that took off.

A few years later, so did her father.

Fast forward five years. Now a high school junior, Clio was gearing up to work at a cool art supply store when her father contacts her. He wants her to come with him on a ten-week trip to the Mediterranean, but he won't tell her exactly where or why they're going.

Reluctantly, she goes along, only to discover they aren't alone. She must bunk with a sassy Swedish-English girl named Elsa whose mother is assisting Clio's father with his research. Her father's best friend Martin and a college boy named Aidan are also on board. As Clio's travels take her farther from home, they may or may not bring her closer to her father - and to herself.

Clio is a remarkable character. She's artsy. She's feisty. She's cool, but she doesn't know it. (That may just make her cooler.) She knows what she likes but isn't quite sure what she wants. She has a boldness about her, yet she's not really impulsive. Clio has a backbone, and even when she's vulnerable, she fights to stand on her own two feet. Her unique streak is a mile wide and she's got a knack for witty comebacks. I absolutely love her voice. Johnson's distinctive writing style really makes Clio shine.

Undeniably entertaining, Girl at Sea will not only please Maureen Johnson's loyal readers but should also be appreciated by anyone searching for a witty narrative and a memorable journey.

Henrietta Leavitt was an incredible individual. She made some of the greatest discoveries in astronomy during the 20th century, however, very little has been written about her enigmatic life. Miss Leavitt's Stars: The Untold Story Of The Woman Who Discovered How To Measure The Cosmos by George Johnson attempts to fill in what is known about Leavitt. For those of you that have a passion for historical astronomy I would recommend this book. It is easy reading and not a large book to read. It gives a great overview of some of the scientific rivalry between other astronomers of the era, such as Harlow Shapley & Edwin Powell Hubble. The only thing I found slightly disappointing about the book is it's limited information about Leavitt. Of course, this is of no fault on the authors part, but due to poor records kept about Leavitt's life at the time. Henrietta Leavitt lived in a time when astronomy and science in general was dominated by men, and this book is a fitting tribute to a woman who slowly helped to break down some of those barriers for early female scientific pioneers.

This book should be a must read for any high school or college Astronomy
or natural science class. Its an easy read (few hours) of the remarkable
Ms. Henrietta Leavitt, who discovered that stars at a fixed distance
(in our closest neighbor galaxy, the large Magellanic Cloud) vary in their
apparent (and thus true) brightness with a period proportional to their
average brightness. Thus by measuring the time (typically a few days)
between successive peaks in brightness, the intrinsic brightness, or
luminosity, could be accurately inferred. And knowing this, for such a
star in a distant galaxy, the distance to that galaxy followed from
simple comparison with the apparent brightness. This allowed the
distance scale, or cosmic yardstick, to be determined for the first time,
all from the patient and largely unrecognized work of woman "computer"
(as they were then called) at the Harvard Observatory painstakingly
measuring glass negative photographic plates of the southern sky taken
with Harvard telescopes in Peru and elsewhere. Johhson's book is a
beautifully written account of scientific discovery, told in a clear but
gripping manner.

Proper and overdue credit is paid in this book to Henrietta Leavitt, but the story the author tells is more the story of two generations of astronomers from Edward Pickering to Edwin Hubble and beyond, who proved chiefly by observation that the universe was not merely our Milky Way but an immensity of such proportion that even the idea of an omnipresent deity seems ludicrously tiny. The stress in the title should fall on the word Stars. Author Johnson is careful not to dishonor Miss Leavitt by exaggerating her central importance or by overdrawing her martyrdom as a "glass-ceilinged" woman in a male-chauvinistic era. Leavitt's life was fascinating indeed, though little documented, but Johnson's tale is not a hagiography. It's a tight, lucid history-of-science in 130 pages, a perfect book to read on a transcontinental flight or while waiting for George W to acknowledge a mistake.

This is a great little book. In 130 pages of well-crafted prose, the author recounts the history of one of the most exciting periods in modern astronomy. Concentrating mainly on the early decades of the twentieth century, he explores astronomers' efforts to understand the size and structure of the universe. As the book's title suggests, Miss Leavitt's stars, i.e., Cepheid variables, play a very important role in this quest. However, according to the author, so little is known about Miss Leavitt's life per se that the book's subtitle is an exaggeration: the book is more about early twentieth century astronomy and much less about Miss Leavitt's life. Scientific principles are very clearly explained using simple analogies. No mathematical formulas are used anywhere in the book - an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on your point of view. Written in a most engaging style, this book would be of interest to anyone, but especially science/astronomy buffs.

Allan Sandage, the respected astronomer and protégé of Edwin Hubble, once said: "What are galaxies? No one knew before 1900. Very few people knew in 1920. All astronomers knew after 1924."

Miss Henrietta Leavitt died in 1921. Working for years at the Harvard College Observatory under the noted astronomer Edward Pickering, this nearly forgotten observatory assistant, a 'computer' (one that does computations by hand), provided a tool critical to unraveling the most basic question facing astronomers in the early twentieth century. Was the Milky Way essentially the entire universe, or was the Milky Way just one of many large clusters of stars? These hypothetical clusters went by various names: island universes, nebulae, and galaxies.

How could one demonstrate that some stars were in a nearby cluster, while others were actually much farther away? Triangulation methods, a trigonometric approach, only worked for the sun and a few nearby stars. Is a dim star a bright star that is far away, or is a dim star simply a dim star that is nearby?

This short book, Miss Leavitt's Stars, is less biography, and more history and science than the title might suggest. Too little is known about Henrietta Leavitt herself. We do know that Miss Leavitt carefully analyzed the brightness of variables stars (those that brighten and dim over some period) in the Small Magellanic Cloud. Subsequently, she discovered a remarkable relationship between the brightness of individual stars and the lengths of their periods. The brighter the variable star, the longer the period. Furthermore, since the Magellanic variables are probably all about the same distance from the earth, their periods are apparently associated with their actual light emission.

What all this means is that by measuring the period (the rhythm of brightening and dimming) one could determine the intrinsic brightness of a variable star. In turn, by comparing this calculated intrinsic brightness to the observed brightness an astronomer can determine how far away the star actually is.

This breakthrough fueled the competition among astronomers to resolve the size of the universe. The ongoing debate between Harlow Shapley and Edwin Hubble dominates the second half of this short book. Hubble wins, and the concept of a galaxy becomes commonplace. Even more remarkable, distant galaxies are shown to be accelerating away: the universe is expanding at a rate determined by the Hubble Constant. I like the quote about Edwin Hubble from a hometown newspaper: Youth who left Ozark Mountains to study stars causes Einstein to change his mind.

George Johnson writes with a clarity and precision not always found in science books for the layman. Miss Leavitt's Stars is a delightful blend of biography, history, and astronomy.

Trivia: I was once a computer for a month. As a new geophysicist, I worked on a seismic crew in the Louisiana swamps for a year, rotating between various crew positions each month to gain first hand experience. While holding the job title 'computer', I analyzed by hand raw data as it was collected, essentially quality controlling seismic data that was slated for intense processing on large mainframe computers. Unlike Miss Henrietta Leavitt, my hand calculations were not entirely manual. I did possess a hand calculator, a tremendous advantage. It is difficult to imagine the meticulous measurements and calculations carried out day after day, night after night, by Miss Leavitt.

I needed to read this book. I am in the process of pursuing a private pilots license and this was so beneficial to me to be able to read a book that answered those questions I would have never thought to ask.

I must agree with every positive thing said about this work. It has really inspired and carried me through into actually taking action. Like having a friend by your side, giving advice.

Very well written introduction for anyone considering becoming a pilot. This book provides a short, but thorough, analysis of just about all that being a pilot involves - from initial training to life as a General Aviation pilot. Finally - a book well worth the money!

Your Pilot's License provides a simple, concise guide to getting your license to fly. Eichenberger describes both how to actually fly a plane as well as the process by which one learns how and is licensed to do so. Eichenberger's experience as a flight instructor (CFI) clearly shows, as much of the book reads like a flight lesson.

The book is a must-read for anyone thinking about taking up flying or who has just started taking lessons. Not only does is summarize what to expect, it also provides a wealth of knowledge that should help make your lessons more effective. Eichenberger explains complicated concepts in simple English. Particularly helpful to the beginning pilot will be his explanations of how lift works and how to "fly the box" taking wind into account.

For those who have been flying for a period of time, the book offers very little (other than perhaps nostalgia about those first flights). If you don't already know what is covered in this book (and in some areas, significantly more than is covered) you really shouldn't be flying a plane.

For those looking to get their flight instructor certificate, this book holds particular value as it will help you learn how to teach your students! It is also very helpful in remaining us how if felt "from the other side."

I am a CFI (Certificated Flight Instructor) and have read several popular 'Private Pilot Training' manuals. Many of them are expensive, and very thick. I don't use them though...I use THIS book. It covers 90% of what I want covered in ground school, and I augment it with other materials as I see fit. It is quite inexpensive, and it is very well-written. I highly recommend this book to prospective pilots, to student pilots, and to certificated pilots as a handy 'quick refresher'. If you have ever considered becoming a pilot (trust me, it is worth every penny), this this book gives you a great overview of what flying is about.

Once a Ranger, right from the start grabs the reader in a very real way. There is no point where the author sells out with fantastic or non-sensical filler. This is my favorite category of Fiction and I read one-two such novels a month, so I am always on the lookout for that new author, who "keeps it real", makes his characters engaging & believable and makes the reader glad he spent the 5-6 hours in a world such as the one Mr. Johnson has created for us. Thank you for a refreshing approach & please, KEEP 'em Coming!!! Going out to buy Lethal Agent now!

This novel is a "good read" that jumps back at you. So for me that's so meaningful, since I do not live among "the literati," I read solely for enjoyment - especially novels, where the didactic can often be a real stretch. Johnson has taken his knowledge and writing skill and gave me a pleasurable 2-day ride last Fall at a time when I was all stressed up. "Once a Ranger" had all the necessary elements: well-developed characters, informed plot, timely issues and familiar, but interesting, protagonists. My only knock, a familiar dialectic: an Antagonist on the stimulants of children fetish and a Conquistador-complex, but Johnson got this arch-Colombian Bad Guy character to support all the other elements. The Lead Guy is an ex-ranger, and a comforting dad whose son gets snatch. With some old Buds and his Wall Street squeeze, they retrieve his son and some other kids. I simply enjoyed Johnson's weaving of this story! It took me away from my troubles for a brief time - and has jumped back at me often since, as so many of Johnson's themes and human nature insights are reflected back in the glare of today's news. Read it, if you seek some moments of pleasure!

I received this book for Christmas and began to read it on my train ride to and from work (that is, after my wife swiped it and read it first!). It was the kind of book I couldn't wait to get back into. I didn't want the adventure to end, yet could not wait for the outcome. The author seems to have astute insight into the many details of commando-type assault and stealth tactics, which I found fascinating. I highly recommend this book and you will find it a very exciting "ride" into an absorbing adventure.

This was wonderfully written! I held my breath until the end - it was so very interesting to see the hero of this book go to the lengths that he did to get his son back. And to have the friendships that he had - it really was good to see men care so much about each other! Great action - and who knew you could throw a plausible love plot into the middle of all of that. I would (and have) recommend this book to anyone looking for an intelligently written action packed novel.

David Craig has established a career on Wall Street.He was once an Army Ranger.He served with distinction and was awarded
a Congressional Medal of Honor by the President for bravery in
battle in Vietnam.He has saved his brother Rangers.Now he is making big money on Wall Street.He lives with his son Justin.
He is attacked in a park and his son is kidnapped.He recieves
little or no help from the NYPD,FBI,DEA or CIA.A drug lord named
Belalcazar has taken Craig's son and other children for his own.
Belalcazar has people in the FBI,DEA,and CIA on his payroll who
sheild him from investigation and arrest.After running into brick walls and interference Craig calls upon his Ranger buddies to help him with recovering his son.Belalcazar has no idea what he has stirred up.Belalcazar becomes the target of the
former Rangers.They trace the drug king to his island fortress
of Gorgona.Then the Rangers spring into action.
This is a very good book that has action,excitement,and a good
display of a father's love for his son.Buy this book,you will enjoy it.

Hillary Johnson's fascinating book, first touched upon in her article in Rolling Stone is a compelling read. The poor response by the CDC and the NIH to an epidemic that has now affected more lives than both AIDS and Lung Cancer is tragic. Ms. Johnson's beautifully woven story (though at times technical) would make for a very moving film in the tradition of And the Band Played On.

The author does an outstanding job of revealing how some of our most "respected" agencies in western medicine attempt to deal with what they can not define, despite what the patient says. Through constant shifts in focus, we are shown how several different groups deal with this syndrome. The writings illicit a tremendous amount of rage at the incompetence, pain at the ignorance, and confusion in the beurocratic anchors. This book reads like a mystery, and keeps you intrigued until the last page. It concludes like the reality of the search for this anomoly- with no 'pat' answers.

I read this book when it first came out. I would highly recommend it to any health care professional, any sufferer, or any relative of any sufferer. Society has come a long way over the years. Around 1990 I took a copy of one Dr. Jay Goldstein's books on chronic fatigue to a lecture on another subject. One of the other attendees picked it up, read the title, and disdainfully tossed in back on the table declaring, "Chronic fatigue? There is no such thing. It's only depression." On the other hand, myths are still all too common.

Back to this book. It leaves me dumbfounded how many of the issues clearly dealt with in this book are still reported incorrectly. Example: Epstein-Barr virus. It has widely been reported that since EB virus does not appear in clusters/epidemics, and that antibodies are present in a very high percent of the population, attributing chronic-fatigue to and EBV outbreak is, well, wrong. And that the doctor(s) should have known that.

However, in the book is it made clear that the doctors at Incline Village where an outbreak occured did know that. So when one of the doctors started seeing many of his patient's showing up with positive blood tests for EBV, he sent some samples to a researcher. The researcher found an antibody pattern that was not indicative of new infections, but rather of a recurrence or reactivation of a prior infection. This was a pattern the researcher had never seen before, and implied another cause, possible a weakening of the immune system. But not an epidemic of new EBV cases. By the way, that also argues against the assertion some have made that EBV is a possible cause, although it should be ruled out clinically.

The book is replete with many stories and issues, that differ remarkably from what is commonly reported about this issue.

One final chilling note. In the book dozens sufferers are introduced, some in depth, some obliquely. In an annex at the end of the book, the is a short follow up on many of the sufferers. What is chilling is how many have died.

This is the most informative book I've read on Chronic Fatigue. The reading is dry at times, but very informative. This book is about the Center for Disease Control (CDC) involvement in investigating CFS up to the date when the CDC was found quilty of misappropriation of funding for CFS research. Anyone new to the illness should have this book in their library, even if it is just used for references.

This book really gives you an understanding of how and why ME has been stigmatized, ridiculed and ignored as much as it has. It makes it very clear that it was not a mistake or an oversight at all but that it was in fact utterly deliberate. The pure stupidity and lack of basic human compassion involved is astounding. It's important to know how we've ended up in this mess so we can see how we might get ourselves out I think. It's also important that we not underestimate how low these people will go - its lower than you could even imagine.

A must read if you are well enough to tackle such a long non-fiction book, it'll just blow your mind and really fire you up about how badly we have all been treated historically and the...well you'd have to call them evil, people behind it all. A fantastic book to fire up your activism urges.

Unique perspective of city-dweller's experiences with visiting squirrels over a number of years. Well worth a read.

This book is such a gem, easily one of the best books I've read in a long time. It's informative, funny, and written with a very sensitive eye. You really do get to know (and love) each of the memorable characters that visited the author over the years. All the while, you learn a lot of fascinating things about squirrels and how they behave.

I was a little worried when I ordered the book that the author might turn out to be a little too eccentric... you know, a strange "squirrel lady," but she's not at all like that. She's a university professor and a surprisingly good writer who just loves animals and is fearless enough to invite them into her home.

My favorite part was the very funny section where the author takes one of the squirrels to the dentist because of a problem with his lower front teeth.

I loved this book, and not just because I love squirrels. This is a wonderful account of one womans life with her urban squirrel friends in NYC. Having just been to Washington Square Park where the book takes place I can see how these squirrels became so dependant on the kindness of others. This is a great book for those who may not be fans of the squirrel, but who would at least appreciate a good story and like animals. I have been recommending this one to a lot of people I know just for a change of pace in their normal reading, so go get a copy, but don't bury somewhere where you can't find it again.

Grace Spruch and her husband Larry, both physics professors, moved into a Greenwich Village apartment in 1970. For ten years Grace kept a journal of the observations she made about the squirrels that visited them for daily handouts of nuts. Looking for a book with drama, romance, suspense, and excitement? Look elsewhere. But if you want to read a wonderful account of a rodent-loving woman's interactions with a charming gang of furry individuals, check this book out.

I loved this book so much! Since I have moved from Pennsylvania to Australia I have missed squirrels very much. They are such beautiful and resourceful creatures yet we seem to know so little about them. Grace's story of her experiences with her neighbourhood squirrels will delight any animal lover. She has a unique perspective and writing style which is intelligent yet appreciative of the little critters. I really loved her wonderful accounts of which squirrels prefer which nuts and how they choose between them.

Highly recommended!