Reed Books

Larousse Gastronomique I purchased this book for a friend who was offered a job as an executive chef at a country club. I was told by many it is the bible for all chefs. I paged through it and it's amazing. I am not a chef, but I cook a lot. I will be buying one of these for myself! As far as the friend, he was pleasantly surprised to say the least by his going away/congrats gift! It is a must have.

I bought this book for my cousin's bridal shower. (It was on her registry.) The day it arrived, it was raining, and the book's pages got oh-so-slightly crinkled. However, it was still in ok condition to give as a gift.

I have not yey received the book! I live in Russia and receive my mail through the APO system so hopefully it is just delayed. If not I will get back to you next week.
Thanks, Roger

This book is apparently famous in cooking circles, which is why I needed it for my cookery course at college. I was honestly pleasantly surprised with it, it had a lot of detailed colour photos, sections for each countries own unique foods, a lot of French and Continental cooking (of course). I could really recommend this book to anyone who is serious about cooking or even someone who is just curious about it.

This book is definitly the Chef's bible. If you're studing in a culinary school this book is a must! It's so complete, remember being chef isn't just cook nice, being a chef means have knowledge, knowing why food has reactions, why we have to cook in certain ways, etc... this book will help you to get that!

I was very pleased to have finally discover a book that contained maps of all the premiere growing areas, especially in Europe (in topo no less.) In the past, I had been challenged searching on-line for maps that were able to pin point certain vineyards. A true atlas in every sense of the word to the greatest grape growing areas including a 14 page gazatteer to aid in locating even the smallest village.

The first 50 pages is a well illustrated lesson of wine from vine to stemware including the history of wine, grape type and identification, soils, aging and more. The atlas section contains, in addition to maps, beautiful photos and reproductions of labels pertinent to the area being described. Individual paragraphs guide the reader through these areas with details on dominant grapes grown and the leading producers.

Better suited for the more advanced oenophile.

Joseph Broski - Dionysian Society International (NJ)

Wonderful, I recommend this book to any specializated person who could be interested in world wine. It's fabulous.

This book has always been a classic, and the newest edition is spectacular. This is a must for one's library. If you are to own just one wine book, this is it! It is so thorough, with fabulous maps, photos, labels, and info. It is so much fun to open this up along with a bottle and learn as much or as little as you care to. The time, thought, and knowledge put into this book is a inspiring, don't miss it!

Just an all-around great thing to have or to gift for people who enjoy (or would like to start to enjoy) a good glass of wine.

If you can only own one wine book, this is it. Well-organized, enormously informative, accurate, rich writing and graphics. The A-Z of wines without pretension or being a ten volume tome.

This was written for me. My next door neighbors were converted to being JW. This was when we were young children. I do stay in touch periodically with this friend who I met when she was only 4 years old. She is still a JW and has raised her children this way. She told me a story of abuse by her Father who was a drug addict and a pedophile. As a child she often went hungry as her father wasn't bringing home income. Her mother allowed her child to associate with me because we had her stay for dinner almost every night, This draws some light for me to her plight. In school where she was forced to stand in the hall during the pledge of allegiance. This is against JW rules. She quit school as soon as possible. She home schooled her children before it was a common thing to do. Not all JW people abuse their children. I can tell you that after her terrible childhood my friend is an excellent mother. She put being a good mother as her top priority in life. Once you are in this religion it's pretty difficult to leave. Normally when you leave a church it's not the end of the world. For these people their whole world crumbles. It's terrible to bully a child because of a parents beliefs. Most people don't realize that joining JW can also effect your health or kill you. You can not get a blood transfusion. A very personal thing for me because I'm alive today because of blood transfusions. I also recommend I Witness which explains in greater detail what JW believes.

Reviewed by Kam Aures for RebeccasReads (1/08)

"Out of the Cocoon: A Young Woman's Courageous Flight from the Grip of a Religious Cult" by Brenda Lee is a memoir chronicling the author's escape from the binding hold that the Jehovah Witness religion had on her family and life and the consequences that met her afterward. When Brenda was a young girl, Jehovah's Witnesses visited her Pennsylvania home with their literature and talked her family into doing a free bible study. That one knock on the door would forever change Brenda's life and her relationship with her family. Her mother became immersed in the Jehovah beliefs and decided that the whole family would be baptized as Jehovah's Witnesses. Brenda's father refused and was the only one not baptized although he did attend the meetings at Kingdom Hall.

Jehovah's Witnesses have a very rigid belief system without any room to bend. Growing up in the Jehovah faith was very traumatic for Brenda as she found herself isolated from the rest of her classmates. She could not celebrate the events they celebrated, participate in school activities, or date. Also, as a Jehovah's Witness you cannot be friends with or associate with people who are not of the same faith as you. To top all of it off she even had teachers who abused her because of her religion.

When she finally came of age she escaped to live with a cousin that she had never met in Colorado and tried to start her life anew by breaking free from the holds that the religion had on her. However, her insecurities fostered from being isolated and ostracized as a child followed her into adulthood and there were consequences that followed.

Unfortunately in the Jehovah faith once someone leaves the religion they cannot be associated with anymore by those still in the faith. This even applies to family members. So in a sense by leaving the religion she also lost her family, all except for her father (he was not baptized into the faith). After trying to "save her" and failing, they would not talk to her anymore and essentially they cut her out of their life.

While I understand that the Jehovah faith did have a huge effect on the author's life it seems that she blames everything that goes wrong on that premise which I find a little bit unbelievable. There are other factors involved that cause things to turn out the way that they do. I do understand her anger but in some cases it seems that it is misdirected.

All in all, the book is a very engaging and a fast read! I read all 238 pages from start to finish in one night. I learned a lot about the Jehovah's Witness faith and I was actually shocked by a lot of the things that I read. I honestly had no idea that these people who come knocking on my door believed some of the things that they do. To disown a family member because they choose not to be involved in your faith is, in my opinion, ridiculous! I applaud Brenda Lee for having the courage to come forward and write this memoir and hope that others can benefit from reading about her experience. I think that anyone who is considering becoming a member of this religion or any similar religion should definitely read "Out of the Cocoon" before doing so!

I can't say enough about this book. Admittedly the child abuse Brenda describes is sometimes very disturbing to read but what makes it disturbing is that it actually happened and was condoned by this religious group. Chapter 1 starts out with a graphic story that Brenda wrote called, All Alone in the World. You might think her writing isn't good, but that's because she was only 12 when she wrote Chapter 1. The rest of the book is so wonderfully written...Brenda is a remarkable story-teller. I truly felt like I was in her shoes. I felt her pain, confusion, guilt, fear, joyful triumphs. You may think this sounds like a totally depressing book but it's actually quite light-hearted and funny. It contains a lot of Brenda's off-beat humor and many inspiring quotes. Sometimes I laughed and sometimes I cried.

Out of the Cocoon shows how Brenda's mom, a normal all-American Methodist Sunday school teacher could be swept up in the destructive rules imposed by the Jehova Witnesses and how those rules could ultimately sever her family ties forever.

Brenda's book is about so much more than growing up in a cult though. She talks about being a single mom and struggling to survive, feeling vulnerable and alone and rejected by those she loved, being in a bad relationship because she was afraid to be all alone. Every teenager and adult in America should read this book because it helps the reader understand how our childhood so dramatically affects our choices once we become adults. Very insightful!

The message is clear that if you think you're too strong-willed or smart to ever become a member of a harmful group or cult, you have probably just moved one step closer to becoming one. Don't believe your family is safe like her mom did. She thought Jehova Witness seemed so nice when they offered a free study but this is how they trapped Brenda's family into joining them. I was SHOCKED to learn that they even have a door-to-door quota to meet and have to turn in how much time they spend talking to people when they go to people's doors. Then they become downright cruel and shun their own children if they don't want to be a member of their church! Unbelievable!

I highly, highly recommend that you read this book because it could prevent you from losing your child or parent someday. As a parent myself, I feel fortunate that I can share this knowledge with my family. I have a cousin who is a Jehova Witness and now I understand why she became so distant from me when she joined this church.

Bravo to Brenda for being so courageous and saving/helping others through her story!!

I ordered this book anticipating a story of someone freeing themselves from a cult as the cover suggests. I guess you can't judge a book by its cover. The first six chapter are from age ten (intro. to JW's) to age eighteen (freedom). After that it is Brenda's life story, with the watchtower popping up every now and then. I have read many books regarding the watchtower, and have personally dealt with JWs. I was bored with the rut the book got into as she told her life story and forgot that her book was about leaving a cult. At times it seemed if anything bad happened it was the watchtowers fault (normal sruggles in life). Many things she went through lots of kids go through when they decide to leave their parents home. Some of the hardships she endured she put on herself. At one point I forgot that the book was about leaving a cult and listened to her complaints about struggles many Americans go through on a regular basis.

I read this book and found it very enthralling. It kept me interested from beginning to end. After reading it I was able to pass it along to my neices who, never being JW's were able to understand what we (those of us former JW's) went through. They could understand it in simple language and we shocked and stunned by the simplicity of the book and yet the complications of being a JW. I wholely recommend this book to any and all who are or have left the JW's to understand the simpliest form of abuse that takes place without even knowing it.

If you use this book, and take the practice tests online until your passing them fairly consistently, you will have a very high probability of passing your test.

Best way to study is to work with the book about 1/2 hour a day, no more.

Take your time, then take online practice tests each day until your test date.

You'll be all set. I think I only got 1 question wrong on my test - and I'm certainly no natural at this stuff.

This is a great book for those starting out in Amature Radio. Though it has been replaced for the new test's, I still reference mine on occasion.

I purchased this manual only to find out that the element 2 test expired in July of 2007. I subsequently purchased "The ARRL HAM RADIO LICENSE MANUAL" which contains the question pool beginning July 1,2006.
This is an excellent manual.

If you want to actually know why the answers are what they are on the test, instead of just taking practice test after practice test and trying to memorize answers, then you NEED this book. I wasn't satisfied just taking the practice tests online and memorizing answers, so I bought this book - learned the information - and almost got a perfect score on the FCC's technicians class test. Most people I know, who didn't buy any books, barely passed. What kind of a score do you want?

This is the outdated version and will leave you unprepared for the tests. make sure you look and get the most recent version to better prepare. Otherwise, the book is a pretty good resource when preparing for the exams. Well organized and easy to follow.

French literature of or about the XIX Century deeply explored the rise of the bourgeoisie over the nobility. Think of Balzac and Proust. But it was this book, published at the turn of the XX Century, which first explored in a comparable depth the decline and fall of a bourgeois family, amidst social unrest. This is the epic story of the Buddenbrook family through four generations. This was a family who had greatly prospered in the free city of Lübeck, in Northern Germany. They were a family of merchants and naval entrepreneurs, deeply rooted in the Protestant ethics of Weberian fame. They were very religious and hard workers. The novel begins with a scene of family bliss: old Johann Buddenbrook has purchased a new house, a big, beautiful one, and the family is gathered. They are celebrating economic and social success. There is Jean, the son and partner, his distinguished wife, and their three children, their and their grandparents' joy and pride. Thomas is a serious and noble boy; Christian is a troublemaker; and little Tony is a hardnosed girl, also naughty but always good in the end. The novel continues telling the story of the upbringing of the three kids and the people around them. The old folk die, and the younger begin to go out to the world. Thomas reveals as an excellent businessman, in the tradition of his forebearers, has a good marriage and gets elected as senator of the city, which he celebrates by moving into a spectacular new house. Christian becomes a ne'er-do-well, a drunkard and a useless guy. In fact he becomes pathetic and hypochondriac. and the pretty Tony experiences tragedy and bad marriages. The decline continues.

There is no point in elaborating on the complex, tight plot. It is a multilayered bovel, with some side stories, but always a straight language and an easy to read style, with no experimentalisms. Mann is a very skilled narrator, and his first novel shows him already in full possession of his art. Character development is very good, and his Realism gives no quarter. Mann illustrates some fifty years, starting in 1835, in the life of this interesting city, one of the cradles of modern commerce, finance, and Capitalism in general. Along with the Buddenbrooks, we experience the profound changes the city undergoes. Business, politics, religion, music, family life and social relationships are all explored. A great fresco of life, by the guy who would later pen "The Magic Mountain" and "Doktor Faustus", philosophical and chornological sequels of this excellent novel.

I thought this book was very well written and entertaining but just too long. If you love Mann then read this book, if not, then just read Magic Mountain or Death in Venice.

I've decided to elaborate on my review.

The reason why I think this book is not worth the time is because the topic is too narrow. For the average reader, this book's focus on a German upper-middle class family from the turn of the twentieth century might not grab their attention and hold it for 736 pages. I am interested in German history and culture yet I found myself struggling through sections. I think many people who are introduced to Mann by this work may dismiss him because this book failed to really capture their imagination. For this reason, I think many people can skip this particular work.

As I said I found the book to be quite interesting throughout, but there were sections that did not add to the book. No one but the true Mann fan will read about some of this family's daily minutia completely enthralled. I am a fan of Mann and I certainly had problems with some of the work. I think the book would have been just as good if not better with fewer pages. The book would at least be more accessible if it were shorter.

The writing is superb, the story is very compelling at times and I am glad I read Buddenbrooks, but I can certainly sympathize with some of the negative reviews for this book and I would not recommend this book for any of my friends unless they like Mann to begin with. If I were not interested in Germany, I may have put this book down way before the final page.

The Buddenbrooks motto is: "My son, show zeal for each day's affairs of business, but only for such that makes for a peaceful night's sleep." (page 473). A wise and careful approach to life like that you would think would keep the family going on and on -- but no --- "the storms and shipwrecks of life." (page 590) pull them down. A history (fictional) of a family in a big book that does not seem so big, because of the skillful way it is told, in short well organized chapters.

I read the "The magic mountain" by Thomas Mann about a year
ago and was very impressed by it. It was a book about ideas
and discussions, drawing from different standpoints of the
political spectrum. I even went on to rate the magic mountain
as one of the greatest books I had read. Buddenbrooks was
a bit of let down. Its clearly a book written by a coming of
age author, and one can see the author's work mature as the work progresses. I think the Magic mountain is a must read and
Buddenbrooks lacks the intellectual distance that Mann is
capable of. Its a Mann book, and not reading it is like
missing a flower in the garden.

The novels of Thomas Mann often portray the fortunes of an artistic aristocratic family in Germany at the turn of the century. What Mann finds fascinating about these families is their decline from wealth to poverty and health to disease. In BUDDENBROOKS, Mann begins a four generation saga with old Johann Buddenbrooks, who by the mid 1800s had established his family as a local power in terms of wealth and health. Clearly Mann saw more than a little of himself in the Buddenbrooks clan. In fact, when his novel was first published in 1901, many of his readers saw themselves and their town novelized in a fashion that scandalized them. They did not like to think of themselves as the inheritors of a worn out and dissolute society.

Johann has a son Jean, who tries hard to carry on the tradition of success in both family and business that he inherited from his father. Jean has many of the hard-nosed qualities of business that marked the success of his father. Jean is soon faced with problems unknown to Johann. Beginning with Jean's generation is the decline of the fortunes of the Buddenbrooks. Jean has an older brother Gotthold who commits two sins that later mark the next generation. He has no interest in or aptitude for running a large family business. In his personal weaknesses, Gotthold comes across as a Freddy Corleone, jealous of the talent of his older brother Michael from THE GODFATHER. Further, Gotthold alienates his family with a marriage of which they disapprove.

Jean has three children, a daughter Antonie (Tony), and two sons Tom and Christian. It is the fortunes of these three that comprise the bulk of the book. It is almost painful for the reader to note the decline of this generation for reasons that may not be all of their own doing. When Tony matures, she is faced with an impossible choice: to marry the man whom she truly loves (Morten Schartzkopf) or the wealthy pig (Grunlich), whom Jean unwisely pressures her to marry. Despite Jean's best intentions, his refusal to let his daughter follow her heart is a very big reason for his family's later decline.

Tom is Jean's eldest son and determines to carry on the family tradition of success, but he is less capable than his father and still less capable than his grandfather. Tom combines diminished business acumen with an inability to tolerate with what he sees as the moral lapses of his brother Christian. Tom is blind to his own penchant for an interest in fine clothes and culture that Johann would have found incomprehensible, yet he has no scruples about lashing out at Christian's foibles.

Christian is a walking mess of neuroses, which later cause him to wind up in a mental institution. He has no talent for business and he sees himself as a dabbler in the arts, which probably goes a long way toward explaining Tom's antipathy and lack of patience for him. Further the family trait of whining about an unfair distribution of a will that was first seen in Gotthold emerges with a vengeance when Tom lies, leaving Christian with a pittance.

The family's decline ceases with Tom's son Hanno, a basically decent but sickly boy who dies of typhus at fifteen. What Mann has done in the Buddenbrooks saga is to use the passing of the decades as a temporal sieve, slowly filtering out the best of the genetic wheat, leaving only the effete chaff. In so doing, he dramatizes what for him was the most abiding concern of his life: a rationale for the extinction of his family's class and culture.

Great book about travel in the 80's. Gives you a real feeling of how these places might have been back then, and my favorite was Lebanon. I imagine some war torn areas are like that now. The first few pages were amusing, but then they became serious as hell, though O'Rourke probably tried to be funny.

Written in the 1980's, the 3rd world political references are a bit dated but his experiences in these countries and witty, irreverent observations are still relevant and entertaining. A good, light read with some quotable quotes.

If you aren't familiar with PJ O'Rourke, the caustic, polically-incorrect humorist who used to write for the Rolling Stone when it was worth reading, this book of collected travel writings from the 1980's is a good place to start. Besides being funny, O'Rourke has an irritating way of insulting your favorite politician or political movement by pointing out their idiocy and forcing you to realize you are an idiot too for believing them. And you still enjoy the article.

O'Rourke is fairly conservative, in a libertarian sort of way, so if you think Gore is exciting, Hillary (or Bill for that matter) is sexy, and Obama is a black descendant of slaves who fought his way to the top via expensive prep schools, Columbia and Harvard, you probably won't enjoy this book. O'Rourke savages Republicans too, but he seems to enjoy skewering liberals more.

That said, this book is a collection of mostly foreign travels (with some American sites thrown in) to various dysfunctional areas of the world. If you have ever spent time in some of these places, he grasps their essence much better than a serious, straight-up political writer. Probably because he realizes that most politicians and official press agencies are steaming piles of horse-apples.

There are chapters on Lebanon, Russia, Nicaragua, Poland, Korea, El Salvador, Disney World, South Africa, Harvard, the Phillipines, and Panama. Most of these chapters were written at the time of some idealogical war. How can you not laugh at things like the Sandinista Director of Censorship denying there is any censorship by saying, "They [Newspaper La Prensa] accused us of suppressing freedom of expression. This was a lie and we could not let them publish it."

On a somber note, you will note that the same Sandinistas are back in power in Nicaragua, Europeans are still weenies ("Among the Euro-weenies" is still spot on), and all the bureacratic and political shenanigans and ironies are identical to what I suffered last time I tried to get on an airplane. (I never did make it since my 6 year old was on the "no-fly" list. Damn, how did they know he was such a spoiled brat?)

So read this and laugh, and then you can cry later when it all hits home.

Ok, O'Rourke has this style of being intentionally very scholarly and distant to add to his entertainment value, but in my opinion the constant tongue-in-cheek-I'm-just-an-outside-observer-documenting-the-kookiness writing gets a little tedious after a while. Maybe it was fun in the 80's.

I have no problem with his humorous approach to serious issues if that's what you're thinking. Being a strange foreigner and all. I don't think it's offensive at all. But his stories read like all the crappy western travel anecdotes you've already heard combined. Like the ones Finnish dads are so excited about. Getting stuck in the Russian customs and bribing them with ballpoint pens. Problems with hygiene in all the poor countries. And France. And such. Not just funny anymore.

I know this book goes back to when Reagan was president and the commies were one-upping one another in Siberia, but "Holidays in Hell," now more than ever, is still a freaking hysterical book!

I remember reading it after I got hooked on O'Rourke in college. I had to put the book away for the weekend, because I'd be sitting in British Lit and remember something O'Rourke said, then I'd start snickering like an extra in Reefer Madness. Dangerous book to read and try to keep your mind on anything else.

P.J. O'Rourke is a humor god, as far as I'm concerned - and as for Borat, he obviously plagerized "Holidays in Hell" for his movie!

The Eye of the Tiger lacks the depth and high narrative qualities of his best works; however, it is a good, entertaining read that will keep you turning the pages with interest and satisfaction. The main character is extremely likable, as are his associates. The villians are easily despised and earn their antagonist labels. The action is steady although a few times I skimmed where it got bogged down.

There are enough twists in the plot to keep the book surprising.

I'll admit that I love the "Manly men of the sea" genre. I have read every Cussler book written. Clive and now his son, have a great formula and they stick with it. Smith's rendition has several facets that I find make the story more enjoyable. His character, Harry has to live by his own wits without some megalithic agency backing him up. I can relate to his methodical thinking coupled with his don't get mad, get even temperament that drives him. Harry's friends seem more like real folks, like the friends you and I might have right down to their vulnerabilities and oddities. In the end, I can admire Pitt but I could be Harry.
It's a great read, with twists and turns you won't see coming. I didn't want it to end. The story really could be a great movie.

Wilbur Smith's "The Eye of the Tiger" is a solid, action-packed adventure story featuring a reformed thief, hidden treasure, two lovely ladies, loyal friends, powerful enemies and maritime action.

Great rainy day or travelling book.

The starting of this book was slow but the speed increased as I went deeper into the book. This is truly another work of art by Wilbur Smith and I give it a lot of credit.Harry Fletcher was definitely my kind of a character and the other characters were definitely up to speed.

I enjoyed this book as much or more than I have all of the other works by Mr. Smith in my collection. I never fail to be entertained by Mr' Smith's stunning character exposition, superb descriptive prose and edge-of-your-seat story lines. I could read a novel about paint drying by Mr. Smith and be thrilled to do so. Eye of the Tiger is an excellent read.

Mr. Wright gets tired of using punctuation and teaching it and thinks it good for them to take a vacation. They go and soon they are sending postcards back to the class telling of the great vacation they are having. The kids find it impossible to write so they are unable to finish their classwork, what to do? Guess they need to ask them to come back. They do and everyone understands that punctuation can't take a vacation.

My class of 3rd graders thoroughly enjoyed this book. It fit right in with the teaching of the writing trait "conventions."

This was a great book. It really shows how important punctuation is when writing. Punctuation takes a break from its work in a classroom and soon the students find that their world is a little more crazy without the marks to make it mind. The story line was well thought out and the list at the end of the book is a great teaching tool. The illustrations are wonderful. I also enjoyed the personality traits given to the individual marks of punctuation.

Good book to emphasize that punctuation is important. It didn't easily lend itself to punctuation activities for the classroom, which is what I was hoping for...

I must come to the aid of poor Sheila who has been unfairly attacked for having an unpopular opinion (and for her spelling--now, that's just rude!).

I bought this book based on the many positive reviews and actually assumed that the perceived racism was probably blown out of proportion. But, as a middle school teacher, when I got to the page where Mr. Rongo appeared, I was a bit taken aback. Yes, Mr. Rongo is African-American while Mr. Wright is Caucasion, and yes he is called Mr. RONGo. That is probably bad enough, but his outfit is also somewhat clownish, and the poor guy really seems to have no control over his class (or at least over his punctuation). I'm white, and it bothered me. I actually checked the copyright date and thought there was some mistake!

No, the color of the two teachers' skin is not the focus of this book. But, if I read it to my sixth-graders, I would feel compelled to discuss this issue with them. I certainly don't want to propagate a stereotype, especially in a school system that is already quite "diversity challenged."

That said, I enjoyed the book, especially the postcards from the punctuation marks. It could be fun to have the kids figure out which ones sent which postcards. Of course, we would have to take time out to give colons some respect. Timekeepers? Honestly! If I were a colon, I'd be insulted.

Amar makes the contradictory claims that the Constitution was ratified by the peoples of the individual sovereign states, but that somehow they also did so as "one people" that he admits didn't even exist as a legitimate ratifying body. And it just goes downhill from there; Amar, being a satist lackey, reads powers into the Constitution that would have the Framers and States calling for his head on a platter-- most notably the power of the federal government to interpret the same Constitution that supposedl LIMITS its powers, thus being the judge of its own powers as Jefferson warned.
However that doesn't bother Amir, who naively and arrogantly holds the Constitution as so utterly "brilliant" and "perfect" on its "checks and balances," as to circumvent any such possibility of abuse; and on this point alone, Amar disqualifies his analysis from any intelligent consideration.
However this is only the beginning of such fawning disqualifications, as Amar displays himself as a true lackey of Leviathanism.

This is a remarkable book. The author's knowledge, insight, analysis and synthesis are amazing. There's too much to praise about it, so I'll just mention one aspect: Amar makes a very compelling case that from the beginning slavery was a disease spreading infection in our society and political system (aided by the 3/5 clause), increasingly corrupting our character and institutions until a terribly bloody breaking point was reached. The evil was partially righted, then amorality returned, allowing a viciousness to fester until another crisis led to new progress. But it remains that slavery and its legacy constitute the central national failure, which we still haven't nearly corrected. Most of the book is quite positive, and slavery's not the principal focus, but Amar's treatment of it is both convincing and unforgettable.

For decades I've been wandering about with a mish mash of semi-contradictory ideas about the constitution. Mr. Amar has managed to correct, justify, and reframe most of them into a (_thoroughly_ documented) coherent whole.

Where the constitution is unclear, he quotes the debates and letters of the founders explaining what they meant. Where there is modern debate, he footnotes where to look for different viewpoints. Where there was debate during the writing of the constitution, he tells you who said what and why.

That would probably be enough to earn 5 stars, but he somehow managed to turn an erudite treatise on the history of one government into a page-turner. I don't know how, but there it is...

Wow, I learned more about the consitution then I ever could have imagined. I didn't have any idea about many of the themes and debates over the constitution and it's amendments. I'm a novice at political thinking, before the presidential campaign I could've care less about politics. Some of this is a bit over my head since I don't have a background in law or political history. However, Mr. Amar explains it well enough that most should understand. I can't recommend it enough for anyone interested in the constitution.

Although there are some tedious places, the book has a number of very valuable and interesting insights - especially the topics of the Second Amendment, the Eleventh Amendment, and the "privileges and immunities" clause stood out for me. He does a good job interweaving historical context and the text of the document. There are some unexpected emphases and omissions:for example, it emphasizes slavery more often and more heavily than I expected for an issue that was resolved 140 years ago, and there was a little less on the Bill of Rights and on executive power than I was expecting, although those are more contemporary issues. His chapter on the path, pre-Civil War to the 13th amendment, was terrifically concise but there is very little discussion on the issue of habeas corpus during the war. These aren't complaints, just notifications; overall it was very stimulating. Like most constitutional scholars, he has some outside-the-box interpretations that are obviously developed to accomplish a particular outcome but these are fruitful to reflect on as well.

Actually, I never read this book, I ordered it for a friend. Anyway, it arrived promptly, and in excellent condition, and at a very reasonable price. If I need a book sometime I will definitly look for it at Amazon.

Don Maffitt

This is a great book detailing one man's experience in the Contra operation. It has high officials and low, but it is written a bit rough. Particularly the absurd repetition of "Compromised" to the point I was hoping someone would lay a beatdown on the writer. Still, if you care for the genre it is an element of something.

This book could have been better with more diligent editing. There are too many needless details, too much bragging, too much laundering of personal lives, too many names dropped, and too many photos of operatives that would likely prefer to not have their face shown. You may feel like a case is being built...which possibly happens to be true since the author was suing Time for defamation.

On the other hand, it is a thorough and frank history of an exciting story that is probably hard to tell. There are many disclosures that may be impossible to find in more mainstream publications. It will probably never become a movie because the story is simply too explosive.

You will find shocking revelations about the so called 'banana republic of Arkansas', Clintons history with the CIA in the 80s, Oliver North, Reagan, Bush, Arkansas state police, Nicaraguan contras, jackals, government money laundering, extortion, bribes, drug running, agent extra ordinaire Barry Seal, arms manufacturing, Vietnam, Laos, intentional POW camp (with US soldiers) bombing, FBI, IRS, and of course the CIA.

The unintentional hero of the story is the IRS agent who quit his job because he refused to lie under oath for the....IRS. I tend to respect law enforcement that will not break the law while enforcing the law.

This could be a very interesting movie for a very brave producer.

This book underscores and confirms Peter Dale Scott's paradigmatic expansion (appearing in his book Deep Politics and the Death of JFK), of the parameters of American politics to the cesspool of secrecy just beneath the waterline of normal everyday political maneuverings.

Here, Air Force Colonel Terry Reed tells the story of being assigned, as an "Operations Officer" in charge of a CIA-run transshipment drop-off-point, disguised as a parking meter manufacturing plant, somewhere out in the boondocks on the periphery of the small Hamlet of Mena, Arkansas.

According to Reed, while operating under various "deep covers" and "cut-outs," he later discovered, that he was in fact working for Oliver North's Nicaragua-Contra "drugs-for-gun" project. Quite by accident he had discovered that his small operation in Mena was a link in a much larger and longer chain of activities that led from Ronald Reagan's NSC, to the Medellin cocaine fields. Apparently, as Reed surmised, cocaine was being picked up and transshipped through Mena, enroute to being laundered for guns (pick up at the Pentagon, paid for out of cocaine proceeds), and sent on to the Nicaraguan "contras."

All of cargo that arrived in Mena was of course carefully concealed in the typical large steel locked-down transport containers. According to Reed (whose job it was to make sure such containers were securely locked and un-tampered with), he, somehow was able to see inside that they were packed full of "one-kilo sized bricks" of cocaine -- one of which he wriggled out to keep as evidence to later either "blow the whistle" on the whole operation, or at the very least, to be used as a hedge against being called a "conspiracy kook and liar" once his revelations were made public. That is the essence of Reed's story.

Well, that theft by the "good old colonel" was a big mistake: For the rest of book is about what happened to him and his family as he was forced to "go on the lam," to avoid being "terminated with extreme prejudice" by his U.S. government handlers and overseers. According to Reed, he and his family are still being pursued all across the U.S., Canada and Mexico in a harrowing odyssey with enough twists and turns in it to make a move that would rival "The Bourne Identity," of Matt Damon fame.

At the time this book went to print, Reed's story seemed like so much "out there" conspiracy theory by the kooks, who were again weaving their familiar and always un-substantiated tales about the "goings-on" of people in power. However, the revelations since the book was published all seem to have produced nothing but a constant stream of cross-confirmation and convergence with Reed's facts. And here I mean the arrest of Eugene Hasenfus shot down in Nicaragua on October 5, 1986; the incredible well-written and revealing book by Gary Webb called "Dark Alliance;" the ultimate expose on the Clintons written by the renown British journalist Ambrose Evans-Pritchard called "The Secret Life of Bill Clinton, and the roller-coaster ride down the dark side of American history by Daniel Hopsicker called "Barry & `the boys," about the life and times of the Soldier of Fortune and known CIA agent Barry Seal.

According to Hopsicker, it was none other than the infamous Barry Seal who was piloting the plane that crashed in Nicaragua and who flew all of the other planes on regularly missions both into Colombia for the pick-up and back to Mena for the drop off, and on to Nicaragua with guns for the Contras. Seal in fact even had his own private "financial interests" invested in the whole Mena operation.

And as is by now well known, from Gary Webb's Dark Alliance, it was "Contra cocaine money" that was sold in America's black ghettoes that led to the "crack explosion" and that financed the whole "Reagan Contra" Operation (At the same time that Nancy Reagan was preaching "Just Say No!"). But it is Evans-Prichard's book that tied all these various loose strains together: from Mena, directly to the backdoor of the Clinton White House: Once the then Governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton, got wind that a big CIA drug smuggling operation was taking place on his back porch, in Mena, Arkansas, he wanted "in on the deal" and "wanted his cut." Apparently he got both with a flourish, by utilizing the likes of Dan Lasater (Chapter 19), who became the Arkansas "Cocaine Kingpen," laundering most of his money through the Arkansas Development Finance Corporation (ADFC), which in a very short time became the largest bonding company in the world. The ADFC was such an improbable place for such spike in bonding activity that this activity alone actually triggered the IRS investigation that eventually led to Lasater and others arrest. [There is another whole story of how that investigation was eventually stifled and then completely snuffed out.]

As one of many postscripts to Reed's expose. Barry Seal was released to a halfway house in Baton Rouge, La, with a bulls-eye painted on his back, and the predictable happened: He was gunned-down in a hail of bullets from a Uzi, presumably by Colombian hit men. The May 23, 1992 (?) Washington Post entitled "Iran-Contra Figure Shot Down Again (by Guy Guliotta) relates how a Congressional Bill to award Eugene Hasenfus $805,209 for his injuries, was shelved: Bill Clinton had written Hasenfus' lawyers in Arkansas, saying that "he would not look favorably on the bill." In the mean time, Oliver North, who lied to Congress, almost won a Senate seat in Va., and then went on to lucrative book deal and an additional lucrative deal as a Rightwing Talk Show Host. Elliot Abrams, who also lied to Congress, did 100 hours of community service and wrote a book about how the Democrats had scape-goated him.

If this does not confirm Peter Dale Scott's theories, I don't what will. Five stars.

This book is simply amazing. It details the life of a CIA asset, pilot and businessman as he falls further and further into the rabbit hole and learns the truth about the CIA and its control of the government. In the book we find that Bill Clinton, George HW Bush and many other politicians are "compromised" and beholden to the secret government known as the CIA. If you think that there is a difference between political parties, prepare to experience a paradigm shift.