Reed Books

I heard of Dennis Wheatley's books from a friend. I recalled seeing the Hammer film years ago but didn't make the connection until reading the book.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that while written in 1934 the novel was fresh and the pacing frantic: car chases, plane chases, and well written supernatural suspense.

Doing a little research, I found that through acquaintances, Wheatley actually met Aleister Crowley whom he incorporated as his evil Satanic mastermind, Mocata in the novel.
It is probably the best fictional portrayal of this true-life historical occult character ever done. Although some complain about the long dialogue passages in which our hero the Duke de Richleau goes into detail about the esoteric and occult practices, it is a technique honed by H.P. Lovecraft. It gently lulls the reader into suspension of disbelief and headlong into the world of the supernatural by binding fact with fiction.

I rented the DVD and watched the film in a different light. Christopher Lee, who plays the Duke, says in the commentary that this was hands down his favorite Hammer film. He goes on to say that he only wishes it could be redone with modern CGI special effects and an A-list budget. Plus at the time, Lee felt he was too young to be cast as the Duke, whereas now he would be of the proper age for the role. Here's hoping someone will do a remake.

If you want to be pleasantly surprised by a classic page-turner and terrified this story is for you.








The Devil Rides Out

After seeing the film I really wanted to read the book. I enjoyed it; it was a fun read and original. Recommended for a detective type of novel involving the occult.

A story more on the suspense side, than the gore end of the scale. A
group of cultists is recruiting and must be stopped, all that sort of
thing. This one was made into a movie with the most excellent
Christopher Lee presiding. Wheatley is fairly tame, as far as horror
novelists go, it is all quite a bit more old fashioned.

_The Devil Rides Out_, first published in 1934 and made available here by Wordsworth Editions Tales of Mystery & The Supernatural, is an occult suspense novel by British novelist Dennis Wheatley that features themes of black magic and Satanism. Dennis Wheatley (1897 - 1977) was a British novelist who is perhaps best known for his occult thriller novels. Wheatley was a fierce defender of British royalty, the empire, and the class system and an opponent of Communism, and his novels feature characters who adhere to that particular point of view. This novel features one of Wheatley's central characters the Duke de Richleau, a French royalist living in exile in England, who had previously appeared in _The Forbidden Territory_ (a tale concerning the Soviet Union in which the characters were pursued by the OGPU), including the American Rex Van Ryn, the English Jew Simon Aron, Richard Eaton, and Princess Marie Lou, along with her daughter Fleur. Wheatley's novels feature themes of black magic and Wheatley was to write about this field after encountering such individuals as Aleister Crowley, the Reverend Montague Summers, and Rollo Ahmed. Wheatley was religious and held towards belief in Christianity; although, certain of his beliefs were unorthodox in that he believed in reincarnation (as expressed for example by Joan Grant in her novel _Winged Pharaoh_). When asked about black magic Wheatley would always reply "Don't meddle!", indicating his opinion on the subject and his note at the beginning of this novel notes the dangers of dabbling in the occult.

The novel begins with the Duke de Richleau and Rex Van meeting again and then wondering what has kept their friend Simon from meeting with them. Together they decide to pay a visit to Simon's house, where they find him to have a series of bizarre guests and to have purchased an observatory. Simon's guests include Tanith, a woman whom Rex has seen around the world on numerous occasions, the old crone Madame d'Urfe, and Mocata, the black magician who will play a major part in this novel, along with several other mysterious individuals. At this point, the Duke and Rex conclude that Simon has been dabbling in black magic and decide to rescue him along with Tanith from the evils of the black magic cult they are involved in. In the meantime, the Duke explains the "esoteric doctrine" underlying the world's religious systems to Rex and they encounter a demon in the observatory. The Duke and Rex manage to get Simon out of the house by knocking him out and thus the satanic coven will not have thirteen, the magical number needed to perform the ritual. They realize that in order to stop the satanic cult they will have to rescue Simon and Tanith before the night of Saint Walpurga's Eve. Rex manages to find Tanith after meeting up with Madame d'Urfe and takes her with him to Cardinal's Folly where Richard and Marie Lou reside. However, first he learns that Tanith is doomed to die within the year. In the meantime however, Tanith manages to escape and travels to the Sabbat. Together with the Duke, Rex kidnaps Simon and Tanith and take them back to Cardinal's Folly. There they must fight off Mocata, who proves to be a skilled hypnotist and uses his powers against Marie Lou. Eventually they must create a magic circle where they can fend off the forces of darkness and prevent Mocata and his minions from retrieving the Talisman of Set and unleashing a terror upon the world worse than the First World War. The angel of death appears and must carry off one of them, and initially it appears that Tanith will be that person as she is found dead. However, things are not as they seem and the group must travel to Paris and Greece to fight Mocata and his evils there, after learning from Tanith's spirit that Mocata has kidnapped Fleur and intends to use her in his diabolical ceremonies. There is also an appearance made by the dread Goat of Mendes, who appears after Mocata's satanic rites have summoned him.

This novel is a highly enjoyable read and is recommended to all those who would take an interest in the novels of Dennis Wheatley. The atmosphere is extremely mysterious and the interplay of black and white magic is found throughout. The novel offers an important warning to those who would dabble in the occult and black magic which nevertheless remains a fascinating and enjoyable book to read.

When I first saw the 1968 horror film "The Devil Rides Out" several years back at one of NYC's numerous revival theatres, I thought it was one of the best Hammer films that I'd ever seen, and made a mental note to check out Dennis Wheatley's 1934 source novel one day. That resolve was further strengthened when I read a very laudatory article by Stephen Volk on the book in Newman & Jones' excellent overview volume "Horror: Another 100 Best Books." Now that I have finally read what is generally deemed Wheatley's most successful and popular novel, I can see the Hammer film for what it is: a watered-down filmization that can't hold a Black Mass candle to its superb original. The great Richard Matheson's screenplay condenses much, simplifies more, excises whole sections and changes the central plot entirely. In short, the book is where the real thrills and chills reside. In it, readers once again meet the Duke de Richleau and his friends Rex Van Ryn (an American), Simon Aron (an English Jew) and Richard & Marie Lou Eaton, whom Wheatley first introduced to the world in his earlier novels "Three Inquisitive People" and "The Forbidden Territory." When Simon comes under the power of a group of Satanists and their Aleister Crowley-like leader, Mocata, the Duke must take quick steps to save his young friend from their sinister hold. Wheatley obviously did a prodigious amount of background research before the writing of this, his first of an eventual nine novels dealing with black magic and the supernatural. He throws reams of information at us dealing with witchcraft, numerology, werepeople, vampires, the undead, seances, Egyptology, Kabbalah, and Crowley's "The Book of the Law." The effect of all this detail is to make the reader really buy into the increasingly evil events and suspend disbelief. As our heroes one by one find their skepticism eroded by the book's horrifying events, so too is ours. As in the film, the book's two main set pieces are the midnight Sabbat (more atmospheric and chilling in the novel, taking place on the Salisbury Plain; not to mention more licentious) and the defense of our heroes within the pentacle as Mocata visits on them one evil conjuration after another. The film's oversized giant spider in this scene cannot possibly compare to Wheatley's leprous, sluglike blob creature that leaps, laughs and pulsates. These two passages alone would guarantee Wheatley's book a place in the horror pantheon, but almost as fine are the scenes dealing with Simon's party, the initial materialization of the demon in the observatory, a minutely detailed car chase, Mocata's attempt at hypnotizing Marie Lou and, finally, a breakneck trans-Europe plane chase, culminating in the crumbling tombs of a Grecian monastery, and a showdown with Mocata for the legendary mummified phallus of Osiris--the Talisman of Set--which will enable its possessor to start a world war. Matheson jettisoned the entire central plot point of the Talisman in his screenplay...unwisely, I feel, as it is necessary for increased suspense and a greater atmosphere of urgency. Wheatley has been justifiably accused of racism and bigotry in his writings (55 novels over a course of 39 years), but happily, this early novel of his contains no statements that should grate on modern-day PC sensibilities. At worst, he can be accused of some fuzzy writing on occasion, of having his characters lecture at times rather than speak realistically, and of continuously mistaking the word "aesthetic" for "ascetic." Minor quibbles, indeed, for a book as exciting, innovative and, yes, downright scary as this one. At one point in this longish tale, Rex Van Ryn tells us that his taste in literature tends to "popular novelists who can turn out a good, interesting story." I think that Rex would have been a fan of Dennis Wheatley, based on that statement. Although enormously popular from the 1930s to the 1960s, Wheatley today seems to be little mentioned, but I for one am going to be seeking out more...

I LOOOOVE this book. It's easy to follow, informative and doesn't insult your intelligence. You'll wonder why you weren't making weird and strange instruments all your life. I thought the book was going to be a bore and hard to get through but boy was I wrong. Mr. Ghazala has a wiley but colorful style that really draws you in after a while and you really start to believe you can do this. And you can!!! I've never soldered but after reading this book and a little practice it will be a breeze. Very cool resource and probably a great place for curious kids to start. A+++++++++

Ten thumbs way up. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in getting started with circuit bending. It's clear and concise, and it will enable you to get started immediately in making things, even if you know nothing about electronics. The beginning of the book gives some background information, and then there's a very useful description of each of the tools you'll need to get started. There are step-by-step instructions on how to complete a whole group of projects, so I'd suggest acquiring this book, beginning one of the projects, and simultaneously venturing out on your own and creating something unique. The projects listed can be done over the course of a day or two. Initially you'll have to buy some tools, but it's well worth it. You'll quickly learn how to scavange parts, and then your cost will decrease SIGNIFICANTLY.

I I can't review this book with out talking about Reed Ghazala, having viewed hundreds of bending related web sights I was most taken with Reed's many had lots of noise but not much substance, but Reed seems not only to have mastered bending but also how to use what he has produced. Now the book easy to read easy to follow, I had no trouble putting together many of the projects the general bending information has been very helpful, if you want to learn more about circuit bending this book is for you. Reed is the kind of circuit bender I want to emulate thanks for writing a great book
Gary Pickett

As a musician who has utilized several bent instruments on recording, and having natural curiosity about the bending process, I figured this book would be interesting, but it turned out to be a more enjoyable reading experience than I might have thought. The author conveys information in a manner that is easy for a beginner to assimilate, but also assumes that the reader has a reasonable degree of intelligence, which is nice. A good teacher should be a stepping stone between what his or her pupils need to know and what they will find out on their own down the road. It goes without saying that an instructor should instill in his instructees at least a spark of interest, which is hard to do if he isn't really that interested himself. He should teach people how to learn for themselves. A sense of humor never hurts either. Mr. Ghazala presents his material in a way that reveals his ongoing love for the process, his reasonably intelligent and semi-dry wit and his eagerness to continue the journey of exploration. And I really like his ideas on what actually makes up music itself, and the notion that music is all around us all the time in the ordinary (and also the extraordinary and even non-ordinary) sounds we hear. It's also cool to find out when and where it all began. Aside from that, the book contains lots of very useful information in a nicely laid out format. For example, soldering is the thing that keeps many people from bending, so it's good to have a very good chapter about that. The factoids are helpful too. While I don't have much time right now to do any bending myself, I would like to take on one of the simpler projects described in the book, and it's nice to know that the particular item I'll be working with has a fragile casing before I go jabbing a big drill into it. Not everyone would even think to mention things like that.
Even if I never find time to put this book to use, and I do hope that I will, I have enjoyed reading it very much. The writing style appeals to me personally, and I think that if Mr. Ghazala wrote a fiction novel (and for all I know he may have written several) I would probably read that too. I'd recommend this book to musicians, mad scientists, architects, artists, electronics types, tech nuts and anyone interested in just reading a good book.

This book is great for aspiring electronics hobbyists who know nothing about building their own electronic devices but would like to learn and have something more interesting to show for their efforts than some boring counter device with a seven segment LED display. There is plenty of instruction on selecting components and assembling circuits, but there is not much in the way of theory as to why you get the sound you do. In other words, if you are looking for the math or musical theory behind any of this, it is missing. I really wouldn't have been that bothered by all of the narrative side trips that the author took that other reviewers have already mentioned if only at the end of the day he had delivered the goods in relation to the theory. If you are a fan of the Evil Genius series of books, you will probably like this book too. The instructions are clear and correct, and you will have something that works if you follow directions. What is missing is the why. What would be nice would be a book that combines the how of this electronics book with the why of more theoretical books on the subject that are usually totally impractical. I am yet to find one. The most accessible books I've found on the mathematics behind music are the two volumes of Musimathics that came out just recently.

Continuing her epic, sprawling novels of intrigue and love in Ancient Egypt, Pauline Gedge moved onto the reign of Ramses III, who was dominated by harem politics and murder. Taking a little known story, the author infuses it with plenty of vitality and energy, creating a young woman who is very different from your standard heroine.

Growing up in the dirt-poor village of Aswat, Thu is mocked and laughed at by her friends for her grand airs, and belief in that she is a long-lost princess. The reality is that she is the daughter of a peasant midwife and a Libannyu mercenary. Indeed, the only thing that separates Thu from everyone around her is her fierce ambition to get as far away from her wretched village as she can, and the startling blue eyes that she has inherited from her father. Otherwise, she is simply yet another peasant with rough hands and a bleak future.

Then magic arrives overnight in the form of a nobleman?s barge, stopping over to pay homage to the shrine of the local god, Wepwawet. The visitor is Pharaoh?s Seer, the mysterious ? and menacing ? Hui. Thu, entranced, decides on a bold if risky maneuver. She will sneak onto the vessel and present herself to the Seer, and she will bewitch him with her young beauty and he will spirit her away to a life of luxury and wealth?

Of course, that's exactly what happens, but not quite in the way that Thu expects ? for the crimson-eyed, shrouded Hui has entirely different plans for Thu, and not all of them pleasant either. The relationship between the two of them is refreshingly different, and Thu is definitely a teenager here, all wild dreams and emotions, but yet with a careful cunning that makes her more than a match for her opponents.

I dislike first-person narrative novels, after a while, the I-I-I's get to me. But in this one, Pauline Gedge has crafted the novel from Thu's point of view, and it works. The book is carefully put together, blending together mystery, magic and romance into a mixture that draws the reader into first the village life of ancient Egypt then the exotic intrigue and splendor of the richest land in the ancient world. And despite Thu's foolishness and reckless disregard at times for others, I couldn't be angry with her long, viewing through her eyes a Cinderella story ? but it's not a fairy tale by any stretch of the imagination. There are princes and kings aplenty in this one, along with queens and concubines as Thu gets to know the new world that she is thrust into. We also get to see the world of the ancient physician, and the day-to-day life of a world far removed from our own.

Yes, it is a bit of a romance, but it?s neither silly nor dull, and the final outcome is anything but predictable. Indeed, I was kept wondering what would happen right up until the last page. There are not a lot of authors that can do that to me anymore. For a very different sort of historical novel, I recommend this one.

The best surprise, however, happened about a year later when I found out there was a sequel, House of Illusions, which tied up all the loose ends and gave a final ending to the story with quite a twist.

This book is also titled "House of Dreams". (At least, my copy is.) It has a sequel just released. It is almost a Cinderella story of a peasant girl who becomes a favorite of the pharaoh in his harem. There are many not the usual romance. As with all of Ms Gedge's Egyptian books, the time and place and people are truly brought to life, more so I think than anyone else writing about ancient Egypt today.

This is a truely fab book, I could not put it down.This is one of the best Egyptian novels I have ever read.One to read again and again.

I would recommend this to all who love historical fiction. I was searching for an interesting historical fiction book about ancient egypt, which I found and more. It's writen in first person, which I usually find more meaningful. It's a little weak at first, but Gedge takes Thu through a life changing journey, one that never fails to hold your attention. I just had to sit down and finish this book one day because it was distracting me from life. I enjoyed learning about the anthropology of ancient egypt, and the only unbelieveable aspect to the book is Thu's remarkable transformation. As one reviewer said, she is "larger than life". It's not so noticable though that the book would be any less enjoyable. Gedge's gift is not for crafting charcaters that are so human or believeable, and normally that would be a drawback, but I think it was necessary to abandon that to make way for a more dramatic read.

Buy this with "House of illusions", I know when I finished it I wouldnt wait to start reading the lesser known sequal and it took forever for me to find it.

This is the story of Thu, an improbably blue eyed Egyptian girl from the little town Aswat. I say improbable because the genetic trait for blue eyes is recessive, not dominate and therefore if Thu had one parent with brown eyes (which is dominate, and the case in the book) and one with blue, her eyes would still be brown. I am told that if three of her grandparents had blue eyes Thu could have blue eyes, but considering that her two grand parents on her mother's side were African, well, the odds aren't good. But that's a stupid complainant. Anyway, Thu has blue eyes, and because of them her life takes some strange turns.

Thu always wanted out of Aswat, and so when she was 14 and a seer came to consult the local god of war she swam out to his barge and offered her virginity if he would see into her future. The seer, Hui, who is an albino, refuses the offer of sex, by impressed by Thu's reading and writing ability, which her brother taught her, he takes her with her back home to be trained as a concubine for the Pharos harem. You see, Hui has a plan for the future of Egypt.

I actually thought this book was better written than the last Pauline Gedge book I read, the Eagle and the Raven, even though that book was more exciting. Gedge is really great at putting you inside Thu's headspace, and the terrible things she does for ambition seem reasonable. You feel her desperation to leave the sandy waste of a town where she was born, her true love of the Nile, her deep awe of her brother and Hui and her total humiliation and rage when she has her first sexual encounter with the Pharos.

So I give this book five stars, and I will be reading its sequel, House of Illusions.

I wish to break into SAP consulting and bought Jon Reed's book because of its content and all of the positive reviews. I got it, read it, and found myself not knowing substantially anything more than I did before reading it. Sure, there are little snippets here and there, but Reed is writing about consulting in a technology field that constantly changing. This led to my primary complaint of the book being dated. For example, he talks about projected salaries and demand for personnel as far out as...2001! (p. 122) Gosh, that's helpful in 2008. He also devotes time in one section to talking about Y2K. Huh? He projects demand for consultants into the far future...2001. (p. 122) On the next page, he writes that "CO is the sexy stuff." Is it still that way? Given how stale the book is, that comment is of ZERO help to me. Reed writes about Anderson Consulting. Huh? AC changed its name to Accenture in 2001. Beginning on page 212, Reed devoted an entire chapter to visa issues. Perhaps he doesn't think that revising this after 9/11 is necessary. NOT revising this section makes his book laughable.

Sure, there are some time honored ideas he passes along, but only people with no work experience or no clue would find this substantially useful, and if you have read any book on consulting, Reed gives you nothing new.

All of this dated material causes the reader to pause and question the value of the book and the credibility of Jon Reed as knowing what is going on in 2008, not 1997. There is a section in the beginning of the book to talking about the new material in the 2004 edition, but since Reed was so lazy in not updating the body of the book, these 3 pages are meaningless.

How about an update, Jon?

I found the book to be very helpful with a lot of good information. I was very pleased with the format of the book, and the practical information it provided. I would highly recommend it for those starting out in SAP consulting to get some helpful information and tips.

This is a great book for those looking for an SAP career. Jon goes through all the steps and he even provides a bit of humor! The book is a bit dated, but the information is still relevant and invaluable! Great source for the junior consultants!

The book starts off great with 7 common myths of SAP consulting.

The best way to kick off an SAP career is with the Big 4 (KPMG, Deloitte, Ernst, and PWC). Leading consulting firms such as Accenture, IBM, and of course, SAP are also good places to start.

The author has a chapter devoted secifically for those startig out on SAP. Here are the things SAP employers are looking ordered by their relative importance.

1)R/3 Implementation experience
2)R/2 Implementation experience.
3)Consulting Experience
4)Bachelor's degree
5)Relevent industry or management experience (such as Oracle or JAVA).
6)Communication and interpersonal skills
7)SAP certifications (bummer this ranks so low)
8)Experience as SAP trainer or user
9)Higher education degrees such as MBA.

Here are other tidbits:

1)It appears ABAP programming is the least "hot" field in SAP since it is also the most outsourceable and SAP is moving towards JAVA.
2)References count more in SAP circles than most since there are many "fake" SAP resumes out there. Also, SAP community is a tight knit community where both your technical and personal reputation is exchanged freely and widely.
3)SAP project managers, while in demand, rarely become high earning independent contractors. Some SAP modules are hotter than others, but it is constantly changing. The book states the HR module expertise is in high demand (in 2002).
4)Having Big 4 consulting experience can pay big dividends as independent SAP consultant.
5)The future of SAP career looks promising, although its peak heyday may have passed.

The main issue with this book is that it is already 6 years old. Due to the rapidly changing climate of the SAP industry, it is safe to say much of the information contained in this book is dated. Much of it, however, still remain valid.

This book is easy to read and has a fun style. It shows the authors' sense of humor in conveying the potentially "dry" information and with the use of colorful anecdotes.

I found the book to have timeless wisdom about what it takes to succeed as an SAP
consultant, and look at it from both the advantages and disadvantages of
independent consulting versus salaried consulting. The book includes case studies of consultants in transition and how they weighed their priorities and made effective career decisions.

Realizing that SAP information can become stale rapidly, the authors built in a "longevity resource" where readers can access a free website to get Jon Reed's latest career advice and market information.

The greatest benefit is that these guys don't seem to be consumed by their egos. I've emailed Jon with a question I had after reading the book, and he was very responsive.

Charles Akin

Marcia Muller takes San Francisco private investigator Sharon McCone to new heights (no pun intended) in Both Ends of the Night. This is the best book in the McCone series that I have read so far.

McCone is a pilot and learned how to fly from Matty Wildress. Matty is not only a flight instructor but also one of the top aerobatic flyers in the nation. Matty hires McCone to find her live-in lover, John Seabrook. Seabrook left suddenly with no explanation, leaving behind his 12-year old son, Zach. McCone not only has to discover where Seabrook has gone, but also, why he disappeared. The search for Seabrook leads McCone to Florida, Arkansas and Minnesota as she follows leads, assumptions and a trail of evidence. McCone is also worried that perhaps she won't find Seabrook alive.

To solve this mystery, McCone must navigate through the Witness Protection Program, a 10-year old unsolved contract killing, a corrupt aviation company, a federal investigation, a company cover-up, and the disappearance of the owner's son. Along the way, she receives help from her ever growing staff, friend and San Francisco homicide detective Adah Joslyn, FBI agent Craig Morland, and lover Hy Ripinsky (who is also a personal friend of Wildress). In the course of the book, we also learn much about planes, flying and human nature.

The plot for Both Ends is extremely well-developed. Unlike many mysteries, the bad guys aren't all bad and the good guys aren't all good. Also, not all the good guys are still standing at the end, which makes Both Ends more like real life.

Muller has become one of those series which I am determined to read every book--it's that good.

Sharon visits her flight instructor, Matty Wildress, and senses that something is bothering her. After some questioning, the private Matty discloses that her lover John has disappeared and has left her with his young son. Sharon and her lover Hy fear that Matty and the boy may be in danger and they try to protect them. Circumstances go from bad to worse, there is a murder, and Sharon and Hy begin looking for the perpetrator. From California, to Arkansas, Florida and Minnesota the two investigators hunt for John to try to find out who the murderer is, and why John disppeared so suddenly. Marcia Muller's books have come a long way since the late 70's when she first created Private Investigator Sharon McCone. This book is a winner for those who enjoy mystery and adventure stories.

I don't think this book is as good as some of the others in the series. I won't go into detail about what the book is about as it is well said in the above writings. I would just be repeating what has already been written. I felt like there were to many people involved. I could not keep up with who was who and who belonged to who. Also to much technical information about the planes. Do not read books for that. I feel the ending did not close all the loop holds. Muller has done better.

I keep coming back for Muller's next Sharon McCone story, so it's safe to conclude that I have enjoyed the series so far. By number 19, it's become as much about McCone and her extended family of familiar characters as it is about the mysteries. For that reason, I suggest that somebody new to the McCone books not start with this one. You can, but it all works better if you have some background.

I didn't find BOTH ENDS OF THE NIGHT to be one of Ms. Mullers' most compelling mysteries. It held my interest all the way through, but there was a little more rhapsodizing on the joys of airplane piloting than I wanted. I also thought that there weren't many real surprises in this one and the climax was too straightforward and obvious. Further, given the personal history of the guy living in the woods, he wouldn't have been difficult for a wealthy father to locate over the course of ten years.

I have enjoyed Mullers' McCone novels and will certainly read more of them. This one, however, while OK, was a bit of a letdown. Not bad, but not one of the best. I'm not suggesting that people (especially fans) not read it, just that there are others I liked better. My four-star rating on this one is a bit soft.

I'm a big fan of the Sharon McCone series and this one was a very good read. Fast-moving, credible. I enjoyed all the plane-related detail. Muller, like Sharon and Hy, obviously loves flying. I'd never do it myself, but I enjoyed going along for the ride, so to speak.

If you're new to Muller, I URGE you to read the McCone books in order, starting with "Edwin of the Iron Shoes." Believe me, you'll get to this one soon enough.

We are very interested in baseball's history, so this book is a welcome addtion to our library.

This book is for baseball fans. It answers the question of Who was Cy Young? Every year Major League Baseball gives an award in both leagues and I doubt that the vast majority of baseball fans can write two sentences about Cy Young. I found his accomplishments stunning in an era when pitchers started every third day, the good ones threw more than 400 innings a year and finished their own games.

Baseball was clearly not the game then that it is today. This tells how it has changed. For example, in Young's day, fans were called "cranks." I think this is an apt description of even today's fans! It was common to call the police to settle on-field arguments! Wow! Read this before the season starts if you are a fan. If you aren't a baseball fan...why not?

Jim

Reed Browning set the model for baseball bios, and it's too bad the scores of works that have come out since this volume have not been up to the mark set. Mr. Browning is a history professor, but other professors who have written about their favorite players have been less accurate and unbiased. Browning has done his homework thoroughly and with no errors. Of course, with Cy Young it's easier to be unbiased and still show him to be among the greatest of all time.
Browning has the perfect combination: all the detail about Cy Young's personal life he could get and keep the book flowing; all the baseball anecdotes worth telling; a fine writing style; and all the live action game and year by year stats and events you can want.

Considering the lack of material, Mr. Browning does an excellent job recounting Cy Young's life. While he is forced to make a number of guesses, they are all well reasoned. Some biographies give a game by game description of what the subject did year by year. Mr. Browning thankfully does not do that, instead focusing on the high points of each year. The book includes a number of informative discussions about the evolution of the rules in the late 19th/early 20th centuries.

Cy Young spent most of his life in a small Ohio village. He left in 1890 to play baseball for the Cleveland Spiders, and returned in 1912 after racking up a truly impressive pitching career: 511 wins, pitched the first perfect game, won more than 30 games a season five times.

This modern biography (written in 2000) is equally impressive for focusing on his baseball career instead of making spurious accusations about his psychological makeup and personal life. It also gives an excellent historical background and explanation of the rule changes during the period, and touches on a few personal areas without going into excessive detail; his life from 1867-1890 and 1912-1955 is covered in just two chapters.

Of the six baseball biographies I've read recently it truly stands out. The author did a great job of explaining how baseball worked back then, both in terms of the game itself and the teams/managers--and, as you can imagine, professional baseball was more than a wee bit different in 1890 than it is today. He uses copious references and footnotes, and makes it clear when he's speculating rather than writing based on fact. (In particular we don't know for sure what player salaries were like during the time. He has a helpful appendix explaining his reasoning.)

If you have any interest in baseball history pre-1920, or are just curious, it's well worth reading. It's one of the best modern biographies I've read.

Visual Basic is the wild west of modern software development tools, supporting RAD (rapid application development) and seemingly promoting a ready, fire, aim approach to developing applications. UML, the Uniform Modeling Language, and a software process aren't always easy to use with VB, and most UML books take a high-level view that make it hard to apply to VB development.

Developing Applications with Visual Basic and UML breaks ground in an area where I've seen no other book yet do a good job, applying UML to VB. UML is a complex design notation that works best with object oriented design and programming tools, but VB 6 is at best object-based. Reading most generic UML books requires, at the very least, an advanced degree in computer science, keeping it to the intellectual elite of the software world. The author has bridged this gap effectively, relating the various diagrams and tools in UML to VB applications, demonstrating how you can apply them to real applications. And relating terms and concepts in VB to those in UML is a big help as well.

This is a complex, in-depth book, and it would be easy to get lost in the conceptual discussions and sample project. But between the clearly marked process diagram used consistently throughout, goals and checkpoints that start and finish each chapter, and constant relating of new concepts to those covered before, the author helps the reader stay clearly focused on the big picture and which part is being discussed.

Rational Rose is used as the sample design tool throughout the book. This might annoy readers using other tools, but the Rose-specific discussions were light enough that you should be able learn the technique well enough to apply it with other tools. The author sometimes gets bogged down in a few too many step by step listings to accomplish a given task in VB. Anyone picking up this book had better have a pretty good feel for VB already, or will become quickly lost.

The one thing that mildly annoyed me is that the author introduces yet another design process methodology, his Synergy system. Synergy seems reasonable enough-I haven't yet given it a work out-but I'm not sure that the world needs another methodology.

I'm not sure that you could sit down, read this book, and emerge an effective design engineer for enterprise applications using VB. But if you have a good feel for what it takes to build robust applications, have some familiarity with software engineering concepts, and have struggled applying them to VB projects, the book provides an excellent bridge between VB and UML. Certainly the best I've seen so far, and applying the techniques are sure to improve your development projects.

It is just that good! Coming from a primarily Unix world, I was looking for a book to help my transition to VB -- but not just a reference on coding -- one that had real world applications from start to finish employing today's technologies which are robust and resilient enough to stand the test of time. I found it in the book: Developing Applications with Visual Basic and UML. Paul Reed covers extensive ground in this book from gathering requirements to class design to code generation, painstakingly detailing each phase while employing UML throughout. His discussions on Microsoft's tiering architecture and DDL generation from modeling tools were most enlightening real world techniques. Personally, I feel that this book is for anyone looking for insight into proficient system architecture whether or not you are using VB.

This book did fill the purpose I bought it for - to help get me started down the UML path. It provided a good starting point to figure out how each UML diagram maps to VB concepts. But, the author has a very bizarre methodology that he uses to build applications, which he uses this book to evangelize. I found myself disagreeing with much of what he wrote. I skimmed the last half-dozen chapters due to the very high level of unfounded personal theory, and poorly laid out code examples.

The other major problem with the book is that the middle part reads like a user's guide for Rational Rose, a tool most programmers cannot afford. Visio would have been far more relevant, although if it could have been made tool-agnostic with regards to modelling applications, that would have been even better.

Overall, I found the book to be worth the money it cost, since the first part of the book really helped me understand how UML works, the time I wasted with the last part really wasn't worth it. Due yourself a favor, if you are a VB programmer who wants to learn UML - buy the book, and rip out everything from around the middle of the book onward.

Reviewer: johare4 from Santa Fe, NM USA This book falls in between Terry Quatrani's book "Visual Modeling with Rational Rose and UML" and Murray Cantor's book "Object-Oriented Project Management". Terry's book focuses on the mechanics of using various UML diagrams. The examples are based on a simple Course Enrollment system that serves to provide an example of the diagrams, but not much more insight than a a bus tour. Murray's book hits the management issues and provides a more realistic example of an aircraft cockpit simulator. He focuses on the management issues and ably describes how UML can help with the customer relations,team communication, and keeping the project on track and on budget. Paul Reed tries to do all these things and includes a lot of code to boot.

There is a problem with Paul's approach. Because of the amount of detail, I found it easy to get lost. What issues are balanced in ending up with Paul's choices? Paul tries to tell me, but the issues are so closely tied to the Remulak Productions example of a musical instrument company that extraction of the idea from this particular example can be a headache that takes you back and forth through a lot of code and a lot of chapters. In the end, you will know far more than you ever wanted about Remulak Productions.

I find the issues and the art much more lucidly presented in Ivar Jacobson's "Object-oriented Software Engineering".

Bottom Line: If you want to know semantics: Quatrani, if you want to know management: Cantor, if you want a lot of detail, particularly how code is generated: Reed, if you want perspective: Jacobson.

I lead a small team of software developers and have been trying to figure out how to use UML to bring some method into the madness that is our design, development and implementation process. Before picking up Paul Reed's book I hade looked at UML Distilled(Fowler & Scott) and Fundamentals of OO design in UML(Page-Jones) both these books were heavily recommended as introductions and I found them helpful. After reading them I had the strong feeling that UML was just what I was looking for but could not quite see exactly how I would use it in my work. I could see that UML presented an array of powerful and useful diagrams but could not really figure out quite how they related to each other. Reed's book really breathed life into UML for me. Reading it I began to understand how the UML diagrams fitted together in the context of a development process. It gave me the insights to begin to see how we can use UML in our work.

I have used Visual Basic quite a bit so the VB focus in the book was helpful. However, the book stands well as an introductory text on UML for those with no knowledge or interest in VB. The book gives a good (and critical) description of the Microsoft Technology landscape - DNA, COM/DCOM, MTS, ASP. Reed clearly explains what these things are and how to use them within context of UML/OOD.

Of course Iris meant it to be bitter and nasty, a satire on upper middle class life and love in London in the 70's. I found most of the characters rang hollow. And Tallis' squalor and his annoying father seemed artificial and overdone. Having said that it was an interesting read. Not one of her better novels. Dare I mention that it does not compare favorably with some of the better Muriel Spark novels?

Brilliant! This novel has everything I look for in a truly great book: complex characters, deft plotting, luminous prose, and profound insight into the human condition. Iris Murdoch knew what it was to be human. She understood our aspirations and longings, our blind spots, our frailties, and our capacities for love and betrayal. She's the only writer I know of who can hold her reader's rapt attention throughout a novel in which the action consists almost entirely of dialogue between the various characters. (If you think that sounds boring, believe me, it's anything but!) In this age of high-speed internet, cable tv, and the unending pursuit of distraction, that's no small feat!

I recommend this novel unreservedly. I started reading Iris Murdoch a couple of months ago and since then, have read no other fiction. This is the sixth of her novels I've read and my favorite to date. If, like me, you want fiction to illuminate the human condition and to give you more than an enjoyable way to pass a few hours, then give yourself to Murdoch. She's deepened my thought, sharpened my wit, and made me more compassionate, while holding me spellbound and fascinated at every turn.

Meant as a satire on the late 60s intelligentsia, A FAIRLY HONOURABLE DEFEAT is not of Murdoch's better efforts. The quick pace at which she produced her novels during her lifetime meant that not all of them are up to the level of THE BELL or tHE TIME OF THE ANGELS, and this work seems far too unnatural and manipulated. The work is largely a study of what Murdoch sees as a human predilection for acting against one's best interests, but the characters are so dislikeable to begin with, and behave with no logical explanation, that the whole book rings very falesly. The central character of Julius, in particular, is so obviously such a monster that it is unbelievable the other characters would want to be within ten feet of him, much less invite him to their homes and act on his recommendations; we are often told he is a man of great charm, but we never see his charm in action. And the historical "explanation" for his otherwise motiveless malignancy offered at the end of the novel seems thoroughly unconvincing.

Here Murdoch explores the complications that arise from the assumption that we are the heroes or heroines of our own life-dramas rather than part of a larger drama in which we are merely walk-on extras. A play within a play within a play is represented: Morgan dresses up as a girl dressed up as a boy, trapped in Julius's flat. Simon and Julius eavesdrop in a manner reminiscent of Jacobean revenge drama. Comic misunderstandings proliferate.

This book makes us think about how all our life -emotions, beliefs, obsessions..- is only a byproduct Language, or the lack of it. Isn't love really a result of Communication; and isnt Hate the result of inability to communicate? Can a witty nihilistic Teaser wreck the lives of innocent people just by dismantling their emotions verbally?
Most often, our difficulties to discern what we want from life are really just language problems, a tragic lack of skill that results in the impossibility to master knowledge about our actions and their consequences.

The reader is left with a vision, both tragic and comic, of what happens when we try to fit other people into preordained roles our own dramas. Only those who try to communicate openly are redeemed from the dishonour of contemporary life. As Murdoch suggests, the only true defeat is being deceived by words.

Iris Murdoch's novels cannot be fully appreciated nor savored in all of their richness without some awareness of her philosophical concerns.

This is the story of Morgan, whose return to London after a love affair in America with the sinister, mysterious and seductive (in every sense of the word) "Julius," brings her to the home of her sister Hilda and that sister's husband, Rupert. Their troubled son Peter makes an appearance; and Morgan also encounters her good but estranged husband, Tallis; and a lively circle of friends appears as well, including the gay couple Simon and Axel.

But then Julius returns. His seemingly quiet entry into the lives of these flawed, but oh-so human people, wreaks disaster and tragedy.

Dame Iris underscores and dramatizes her concern with the nature of evil as the expression of the human tendency to be seduced by the glamor of power and intelligence into abdicating simple and obvious duties of humanity. She illustrates her notion of love as a kind of powerful attention (or Kantian "Achtung") and an immersion in the reality of the moment and the Other; and goodness as the absence of selfish immersion in fantasy and escape or "muddle," and involvement in "concern" (Heidegger) or "engagement" (Sartre) with the pain of others.

This is a brilliant and wise book.

I first read this series when I was 8 years old, and 13 years later, I still love it. This is one of those classic books that you'll want to read at least once a year. The "scrapes" in which Katy finds herself are usually caused by her big heart; each one leaves you laughing, but is the base of a firm ground for a child to stand for. Makes a great gift for kids, or is great to read aloud with the family. An absolute must-have.

...on your bookshelf! WHAT KATY DID is the lively story of Katherine Carr, the eldest of six children-the others are Clover, Elsie, Dorry (a boy), Johnnie (Joanna, a girl), and Phil. Her father, Dr. Carr, doesn't mind Katy being lively and adventurous, but she is also heedless, untidy, and sometimes unkind to her siblings and doesn't care about the work she causes her Aunt Izzie, who cares for the motherless brood. Katy's days are full of "scrapes" like playing "the game of the Rivers" at school and the hide-and-seek game in the dark, Kikeri, until she is involved in a terrible accident. From there she must learn to rebuild her life; she is helped by Cousin Helen, who has not let the paralysis of her legs affect her mind or her heart. While it is true that Katy is "tamed" by her accident, she eventually still remains the innovative, fun-loving girl she was before. The chapter about Katy's Christmas and Valentine's Day plans, especially the latter, make you wish we celebrated the holidays the way they did 100 years ago!

This is a great book-for a long time I liked it much better than LITTLE WOMEN-because Katy is even more lively and ingenious than Jo March. The sequels are also good, especially the first.

There are four sequels to KATY, only two of which are in print, sadly. WHAT KATY DID AT SCHOOL follows Katy's and Clover's adventures at Hillsover, a boarding school in the East. Here they meet one of the KATY books most memorable characters, the mischievous "Rose Red" who makes their year's stay lively, to say the least. The girls play wonderful games in their spare time, including something called "Word and Question" that sounds like great fun, and Katy even "tames" Miss Jane, the humorless hall monitor, and lives down an accusation. Here we meet the Carrs' cousins the Pages, Olivia and her husband and children, the selfish Lilly, who's at school with the girls, and Clarence, a teasing boy who takes a shine to Clover.

In WHAT KATY DID NEXT, Katy accompanies her neighbor Mrs. Ashe and her daughter Amy on "the Grand Tour" of Europe. This is a wonderful portrait of how people traveled to England, France, Italy, and other European countries 100 years ago. It also paints a not-so-pleasant picture of a time when many diseases were rife, and of all the troubles Katy has when Amy comes down with "Roman fever" (typhoid, I believe). But is also there Katy meets Ned Worthington, Mrs. Ashe's brother, and discovers something new to do next!

The out-of-print sequels-please, someone republish!--follow the adventures of Clover and the rest of the family. In CLOVER, she and Phil, who has been sick and has been prescribed "good mountain air" as the best cure, move to a little town high in the Colorado Rockies, where they discover new friends and some old ones-to the person who wondered what happened to Clarence, he is coincidentally living nearby on a ranch with his British partner Geoffrey. It is there Clover realizes Clarence would like their old friendship to be something more.

IN THE HIGH VALLEY is the fifth and last title in the sequence. In this story, Geoffrey's brother Lionel and sister Imogen come to live at the ranch with him. Imogen is prepared to hate the West but gradually warms to the Colorado countryside and grows to love the Carr family, perhaps one more than the other. Note: in this book we finally find out what "Dorry" stands for: Theodore!

Twelve year old Katy Carr and her five brothers and sisters have all kinds of fun adventures. A thicket becomes "Paradise", a hayloft a place for a "feast", and the entire house a playground for games invented by Katy. Katy means well, but is impulsive and irresponsible and is constantly getting into scrapes and trouble. After the Carr's Cousin Helen visits, Katy vows to be more like Cousin Helen, who is saint-like despite the fact that she had a bad accident and hasn't been able to walk for years. Unfortunately, Katy gets into the worst scrape of her life the very next day - disobeying her Aunt Izzie, she herself has a terrible accident. It will take Katy a long time to recover and in the course of her recovery she grows into a beautiful, responsible young woman.

I loved reading "What Katy Did" as a child and it's still fun to read as an adult. Written in the 1870's, it is definitely old-fashioned, but it makes me yearn for the days when life was so much simpler. Susan Coolidge writes as if she is sitting opposite the reader, verbally telling the story and uses words that children might use such as "honestest" which makes the book a pleasant read. Coolidge also includes humor that children won't get, but adults will, such as when Katy gives Aunt Izzie $7.25 and a long list of Christmas presents to buy with that small amount of money. Katy is a very realistic heroine; yes, she gets into mischief, but what child doesn't, and she means well. The rest of the children are equally engaging, for me Elsie stands out. Cousin Helen is indeed saintly, almost unbelievable in her goodness, but Coolidge makes her believable also.

"What Katy Did" is a nice, old-fashioned read.

I absolutely loved this book when I was a young girl in Australia. The story of how Katy changed from a selfish girl into a caring young woman under the influence of cousin Helen, and her trying circumstances, made me want to be more like Helen also. I would recommend this to all lovers of classic stories and times gone by.My 15 year old enjoyed it recently also.

I can remember my mother reading this book aloud to me as a child; one chapter a night. It didn't take long for me to decide that I couldn't wait for her to get to the next installment. I credit this book (one of many) that led to my lifelong, love affair with reading. It's among the top five books I'm collecting now to read aloud to my own daughter. She may only be 2 months old; but, it's never too early to introduce little girls to Katy and family. This book will never go out of style...life lessons are always in vogue.

This book was a little confusing at first but if you hang with it, it is a very good book for learning about the Qabalah. Good addition to other books on Kabbalah.

Okay people - I am going to try to be as clear as possible with this review. Here is the problem with the "witches qabalah"; do you really want to know the secret? Are you sure?
~ THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS THE "WITCHES QABALAH" NOR CAN THERE EVER BE ~
Let me tell you a bit about myself and perhaps that will show you where I am coming from. I PRACTICE Traditional Witchcraft and I study ceremonial magick, Qabalah, Theurgy, Thelema, you get it, etc..
The Qabalah is a system which came out of the mystical traditions of Judaism, okay? That there should be enough said for most people; but people are silly. Let me repeat that, Qabalah, or more correctly (Kabbalah) is essentially a JEWISH tradition. It's correspondences are made to fit with a monotheistic and more specifically BIBLICAL worldview. Honestly, I tell you, there is no decent way to reconcile TRUE Qabalistic practice with Wicca or Witchcraft - it just cant be done.
You can TRY to make it fit together; and unfortunately that is exactly what this author has tried so desperately to do, and yet failed. It's like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Witchcraft and Judaism are about as FAR apart as two spiritual systems can get.
Don't believe me? Fine, go ahead, waste your time! But I am telling you from years of frustrating experience that it just can't happen folks.
Now, if you really really want to practice Qabalistic Magick but don't want to become a Jew; the next best thing would be to read as much as you can about Ceremonial and High Magick. Ceremonialism at least has as worldview that is somewhat compatible with mystical Judaism.
I noticed that many people gave this book good reviews; Well how can this be? Easy - obviously They do NOT know that much about the Qabalah. I would bet you anything that the ONLY reason some people gave this book 5 stars is because this is the FIRST and ONLY book that they have EVER read on Qabalah. From that standpoint I can understand how they could make such an error in judgment. If this is the first book you've read on Qabalah then you will certainly get a bunch of new ideas, and you might even think "Oh wow I've learned a whole lot about this neato Qabalah thing!" The problem here is that you will be EXTREMELY disappointed once you start reading other REAL books on Qabalah and you quickly discover that pretty much everything this author said in the "Witches Qabalah" was either backwards or completely and utterly watered down to the point of silliness.
This book - it's like bad patchwork. The author takes a few basic elements of Witchcraft, a few basic elements of Qabalah, stuffs them all in a magic hat, shakes it around real well and then dumps it out on the table and tries to make sense of the mess; NOT GONNA HAPPEN! Like I said, you MAY learn a few things but unfortunately there just isn't anything that you will be able to do with that knowledge, because it's so terribly incomplete!
The point is this: You absolutely CANNOT understand and practice Qabalah from a Witch's point of view.
My suggestion: Fine, be a witch or wiccan, and be curious about Qabalah at the same time! But let's be honest with ourselves here folks - not every single spiritual system is so easily "new-age-ized". The "new-age" traditions have a very BAD habit of taking a little of this and a little of that and throwing it all together and calling it a "practice". The Qabalah is an extremely deep and profound system that just cannot be "summed-up" for the lazy people of the world. If you want to learn Qabalah, beyond that if you want to PRACTICE Qabalah then you really have to put yourself into it. The first step would be to get some real time-honored and genuine books on Hermetic Qabalah: I'd start with Dion Fortune's "The Mystical Qabalah". After that I would say to read: Israel Regardie's "The Garden of Pomegranates", William Gray's "Qabbalistic Concepts" or even Lon Milo DuQuette's "The Chicken Qabalah".
Really folks, I'm just trying to help my fellow magickally-minded friends out there; it's easy to get duped into buying bad books. "This book will tell you absolutely everything you will ever need to know in order to develop amazing magical potential and change your life for the better!" Nothing in life is that easy, and ESPECIALLY not the thousands of years old sacred tradition of Qabalah.
I'm sure that this author had the best of intentions, but in the end she has done her readers a terrible disservice. Because if the people who have read this book decide to FURTHER study Qabalah at some point, they will sadly come upon the realization that first they must UN-LEARN everything they were taught from this book.
So do yourselves a favor folks and buy something a bit more substantial - and stop being so naive for once in your lives, okay! Just because an author has the bad judgment to slap a title like "the witches qabalah" onto the front page of her book doesn't necessarily mean that such a thing really exists; in fact I can tell you with certainty that it does NOT exist.
There definitely is Qabalah, and it is a wonderful and enlightening practice; and there definitely is witchcraft, which is a down-to-earth and magical spirituality; but there IS NO SUCH THING AS THE WITCHES QABALAH.
Have a good day :) and for Goddess's sake, spend your hard-earned money wisely!

I picked up this book as the suggested companion to "The Witches Tarot" last summer (yes, this book is suggested as a companion to a Tarot deck), and I read it to learn more about the deck and how it works. I ended up finishing the book with not only an understanding of how the deck can be used and interpreted, but with a basic understanding of the mechanics of Qabala. I really couldn't put this book down because I found it really inspiring, well written, and full of information that I can easily apply to not only my Witches Tarot, but to all other forms of Divination I use, as well as practicing my Wiccan faith.

I'll be honest in that I don't think this resembles the Madonna/Hollywood Pop Qabala that seems to be all the rage now, but more of a blend of basic Qabala with Pagan practices. Certainly this book isn't the type of book that will cater to people of the strict Qabala follower or even the Madonna Pop Qabala, and I don't think the Qabala contained in this book reflects really what the mainstream Qabala belief is about. This book is designed to meld Paganism and Qabala, not teach the strict ethics and practices of Qabala as a whole, but this book freely admits to (and makes no apologies for that fact).

If you're a Pagan or Wiccan looking to enhance their understanding of the Universe and Divinity (and their role in life), you'll find this book an invaluable tool. I personally love applying it to my Tarot readings now, and it has helped me become a better reader. My favorite information was the meditation suggestions that this book gave, though the structure of the Tree of Life is fascinating. I also enjoyed the sample rituals to give ideas on how to blend Qabala into ritual work and spell casting. I will say now that if you're buying this book to blend the principles with the Tarot, also pick up "The Witches Tarot" book, which picks up where this book left off and helps you apply these practices to Tarot.

If you're a Witch, Wiccan, or Pagan looking to add spiritual depth to your meditations, Tarot readings, or just looking for a little inspiration, this book is wonderful. If you're practicing Qabala and you want to see how other faiths are blending the Qabala principles to their worship, pick up this book as an interesting case study. If you're looking for information how to practice strict Qabala, don't read this expecting any information or tips for your worship, and be prepared to be frustrated by the Pagan tendency to encourage people to change and adapt the belief structure to fit their worshipping style, a frustration that will turn off a great deal of Qabala followers.

Overall, I say pick it up and read it. It's only 205 pages and a quick read, and $10. Even if you don't like it, I bet it'll give you something to think about.

As never having read the Mystical Qabala before, I figured out quickly that it would be a book that I would have to read at least twice to fully understand it. During my studies, my then teacher recommended I get the Witch's Qabala for our studies. After reading about 10 percent of the Qabala, I finally purchased this book and read it first before continuing reading the Mystical Qabala. It was a blessing! The Witch's Qabala gave me an overview of what I've been reading, making it easier for me to understand it compared to reading it cold. This book in no way compares to the Qabala, but is more an introduction or an overview, if you may, of the Qabala This book makes it easier to understand what you're reading and how the Qabala itself can be incorporated into Wiccan practices and daily life. I did enjoy Ms. Reed's personal comments as it made it more casual and fun (much like a book club), which made it more interesting and fun for me as much of my reading have been more 'textbook' material.

I am a witch interested in the roots of my religion which lie in the Qabalah. I have studied the Qabalah before, using the more traditional approaches of e.g. Dion Fortune, and I was expecting this book to be a kind of missing link between the highly esote