Richard Books

Most Vietnam novels and movies focus on the bloody battles between the soldiers of both sides. Of Rice and Men is the story of the other army personnel who actually outnumbered the combat troops by a large number but also risked their lives daily for a cause they didn't understand any more than the combat soldiers did. This fictional story follows the lives of a few of these men and women in a traditional war time told story mixed in with a mild Carl Hiaasen type surrealness in its characters, which lightens the tale and allows the reader to laugh at a situation where death can come to those there at any minute. An interesting and informative read that makes you think about aspects of the war, we've never really been told about before.

Not a novel so much as a series of vignettes; this is a very funny bring-tears-to-your eyes book. Makes you wonder about the transitions from the dedicated stop-the-nazis generation of WWII captured in Catch 22 to the laid-back generation that fought in Vietnam captured here, to the Nazis now fighting in Iraq where all signs of humor and compassion appear to be completely lost.

Many of the other reviewers have already said all that needs to be said about this wonderful, funny, painful, delightful, thoughtful, and intelligent book. If there is only one book about the war in Vietnam that you have the time or energy to read, this is it! War isn't wonderful, or honorable, or great, or uplifting - War is something happens when stupid diplomats fail the do the job they're paid to do. And Galli's book shows just how absurd and idiotic war really is.

Richard Galli revised and definitely improved his earlier book, REMF's. This novel is cleaner and a funny/poignant look at the Viet Nam war through the eyes of the guys who dug wells and planted crops instead of blowing things up. The author definitely brings home a taste of what made Viet Nam such a life changing event for so many soldiers. This should be a must-read for anyone running for national office.

Outstanding book that brings back many memories. I don't know how the author remembered such details of life in Vietnam whether you were a combat trooper or in support. The author does carry some baggage with him as do many of those that served. Just understand it is from his point of view.

THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THAT I'VE EVER PURCHASED FROM AMAZON, AND I MUST SAY THAT I AM COMPLETELY SATISFIED WITH MY PURCHASE. THE BOOK WAS IN PEFECT/BRAND NEW CONDITION AS DESCRIBE.

I received this book in only three days and it was in better condition than described...Not to mention the awesome price that I got for the book and expedited shipping!! My school wanted $113.00 for the book...psshhh.

This text is required for Psych 103 at Stony Brook Univ., LI, NY
It is excellent.

If you've ever wanted to learn as much as possible from an introductory textbook in the area of Psychology, look no more. This book has served as a tremendous assistant for Psychology, and various other areas of study where psychology is certainly related. If you enjoy learning about cognitive and other behavioral functions of the body, this book is a perfect match!

The authors' use of case studies and real-life examples makes this more than a textbook -- and much more readable than one. I found myself excited about reading each chapter. And I know I'll be looking up things in it in the future. My only quibble is that I found many copyediting errors that I hope the publisher will fix for future editions.

On a mild midwestern night in the early 1940s, Johnny Marr leans against a drugstore wall. He's waiting for Dorothy, his fiancée, and tonight is the last night they'll be meeting here, for it's May 31st, and June 1st marks their wedding day. But she's late, and Johnny soon learns of a horrible accident - an accident involving a group of drunken men, a low-flying charter plane, and an empty liquor bottle. In one short moment Johnny loses all that matters to him and his life is shattered. He vows to take from these men exactly what they took from him. After years of planning, Johnny begins his quest for revenge, and on May 31st of each year - always on May 31st - wives, lovers, and daughters are suddenly no longer safe ... Cornell Woolrich's most justly famous novel is one of the true masterpieces of suspense. Johnny exacts his revenge in five meticulously planned and utterly unpredictable murders that Woolrich unfolds with an almost demonic fatalism while the marvellously unheroic police officer MacLain Cameron is in accelerating pursuit. Woolrich's prose is unique. His style is strongly visual - we'd now call it cinematic even though it prefigured much of the film-noir effects that render it, today, almost cliché. His syntax is occasionally tortured, his word choices odd. Yet as his biographer Francis Nevins has noted, Woolrich's imperfections are a happy marriage of form and function. Without the sentences rushing out of control across the page like his hunted characters across the nightscape, without the maniacal emotionalism and indifference to grammatical niceties, the form and content of the Woolrich world would be at odds. Between his style and substance, Woolrich achieved the perfect union. There are moments when the melodrama builds to such an intensity that it tumbles over into a kind of empathy, e.g. Cameron's late visit to Dorothy's childhood home. You know it's ridiculous, but you feel something all the same. As monstrous as Johnny Marr's revenge is, few readers will be able to damn him completely. This kind of amoral centre is the dark sun around which much of the noir world turns, and Woolrich gives us one of the genre's finest examples. The Modern Library's 20th Century Rediscoveries edition is particularly valuable for its Reading Group Guide, and for Richard Dooling's fine introduction which points to further reading and finds the origins of the novel in Woolrich's own startlingly sad biography. Strongly recommended.

How could anyone not love Cornell Woolrich? He ranks right up there with James M. Cain, Dashiell Hammett, and Raymond Chandler as one of the godfathers of pitch-black noir. Unfortunately, Woolrich's voluminous short stories and his many novels for the most part remain out of print. No excuse exists to merit such blatant disrespect. Happily, several Woolrich works have begun to reemerge to the delight of noir fans. For example, Woolrich biographer and all around noir aficionado Frances M. Nevins edited a collection of fourteen delightfully bleak stories in the recent "Night & Fear." Now we have "Rendezvous in Black" thanks to the Modern Library publishing house. We can only hope that other novellas head to store shelves soon, specifically "The Bride Wore Black" and "Night Has A Thousand Eyes." But even more fascinating than his stories is the author's life. Cornell Woolrich lived from one black depression to another. He worshipped his mother, drank incessantly, and kept his true sexuality repressed. It was an overriding fear of his mortality and the cruel randomness of the world around him, however, which fueled his desolate visions. Sad to say, but Woolrich's miseries have given generations of fans something to sing about ever since.

"Rendezvous in Black" excels as an archetype of white knuckled, totter on the edge of your seat noir, a story even better than the author's phenomenal and oft copied "I Married a Dead Man." This yarn concerns the activities of one Johnny Marr, an ecstatic young man set to marry the love of his life. When his girl, Dorothy, perishes in a freak accident involving a bottle dropped from a low flying plane, Marr's sanity melts away. The desolate young lover discovers the names of five men who bear the blame for the tragedy that destroyed his life, and he promptly embarks on a mission to wreak bloody revenge on these strangers. Marr will go after the people these men love the most in life, using any tricks he can muster in an effort to avenge his shattered life. Woolrich makes sure the reader understands exactly how far gone Marr is in the first chapter, as we see the young man continue to turn up at the couple's favorite meeting place night after night, waiting desperately for a woman who will never show up. Marr's activities assume a mindless repetition, an unremitting yet senseless hope that Dorothy will eventually appear, thus setting the tone for his single minded, relentless revenge plots later on.

A rendezvous for each of Marr's enemies, five in all, unfold with cold, methodical precision. The first rendezvous achieves the least suspense of the five, a short chapter serving as a post-mortem of Marr's first act of revenge. It is here we learn how Marr will attack his enemies (through important women in their lives), and meet the cop, Detective Cameron, who takes on the case. The second rendezvous will set your nerves on edge as an illicit affair leads to disastrous consequences, including a vengeance seeking wife and a walk to the electric chair, for the second man on Johnny's list. In the third rendezvous, a wedge driven between a man and his wife results in a murder and a suicide. As the fourth act unfolds, a conceited, secretive daughter discovers the hard way that she should have listened to Detective Cameron and her parents. The denouement, the fifth rendezvous, involves that last man on the list and his childhood love. It also tries to show that nothing, neither running to the ends of the earth nor the best laid plans, will deter fate. If you feel like you've been chewed up and spit out by the time you reach the end of the book, don't fret. This reaction is normal when reading Cornell Woolrich. It is, in fact, exactly what you want to feel.

The strength of "Rendezvous in Black" comes not from its staccato prose and descriptive metaphors, although these elements do play a large part in the success of the novel, but in Woolrich's bleak cosmology built on an unholy trinity of love turned bad, paranoia, and crushing fate. The accident that claims Dorothy, a bottle falling from the heavens, and the subsequent disasters visited upon those individuals Marr deems responsible, displays the writer's belief in a unsystematic, frequently cruel world where events unfold with ruthless certainty. Love is a good thing, or can be a good thing, but too often it morphs into something that can fuel neverending hostility and destruction. Richard Dooling, the author of the introduction to this edition of the novel, does an excellent job explicating the numerous themes in Woolrich's writings, a better job than I could possibly hope to do in a short review. But you don't need really need an introduction to see that the mindset behind the book is seriously depressing.

The number of continuity errors, implausible events, and other mistakes in "Rendezvous in Black" leap off the page. I find it impossible to believe someone could drop a bottle out of an airplane as late the 1940s, for example. Too, I kept wondering whether Johnny Marr ever aged, as a considerable period of time passes from Dorothy's demise to the end of the book. How could Johnny possibly have wooed the teenaged Madeleine if he was in his late twenties? And considering Woolrich describes Detective Cameron as a bumbler, the cop possesses a tenacity that eventually pays off in the end. None of these problems takes anything away from the sheer power of the novel. There were times I literally felt like I couldn't stand the tension anymore, and any book that can cause that sort of sensation deserves attention. If you love noir, you need to read this one immediately.

RENDEZVOUS IN BLACK, one of the final novels in Cornell Woolrich's famous "black" series that have formed the basis for so many films noirs, is one of his most highly praised works. It is enormously suspenseful: an anonymous young man whose fiancée has been killed in a freak accident instigated by a group of wealthy hunters in a low-flying plane takes his revenge by systematically murdering the woman most beloved to each of the five men so they can share in his grief. Each of the five murders occurs in a different chapter and told in a different style: we know that a woman is going to get it and when, but we don't know how and sometimes we don't even know who. Simultaneously, a police detetctive begins assembling clues to catch the killer. Certainly Woolrich can draw out the suspense in each chapter, and the schematic narrative (which often refers to the characters as "the man" or "the woman") invests the narrative with an almost allegorical quality that makes the whole work seem over-the-top. But there's very little character development in the text, and the shoddy ironic twists in several of the stories seem telegraphed a mile away. Also, the misogynistic undercurrent to most romans noirs seems queasily overemphasized here: except for the first victim (who dies the most gruesome of the deaths), each of the killer's targets intentionally defies the dictates of male authorities in her life, as if to suggest she deserves what's coming to her. Although on one hand this seems almost a pure distillation of the operatic fatalism of the roman noir, it's simply not as good a work as Woolrich's more fleshed-out books like WALTZ INTO DARKNESS or I MARRIED A DEAD MAN--not to mention such superior suspense novels of the period as (for example) Kenneth Fearing's THE BIG CLOCK or Elisabeth Sanxay Holding's THE BLANK WALL.

The introduction to this novel says that Woolrich has been described as the "Hitchcock of the Written Word," but adds that maybe he wouldn't have liked this description. It might be even more accurate to say that Hitchcock is the Cornell Woolrich of the cinema - since many of Woolrich's works came before Hitchcock's, and Hitch even adapted one of Woolrich's stories into one of his most famous movies, Rear Window.

The point, though, is that this guy writes suspense like you've never seen. I say "seen" because reading his novels is really a visceral experience. I don't know how he does it but Woolrich can write a beautiful, elegant story that you can sort of just almost SEE unfolding like a movie --- a movie that will move you emotionally and also scare the bejesus out of you.

Rendezvous in Black contains six interlinked stories about six doomed love affairs threatened by violence. Five of these are labelled "The First Rendezvous" through "The Fifth Rendezvous." The sixth is the story that ties them all together (but it comes first in sequence). I don't want to spoil the experience of reading this book for anyone, but overall it is just amazing and I cannot recommend it more highly. Woolrich, as has been noted here already, was a protege of F. Scott Fitzgerald's. Like Dashiell Hammett, he's an author who makes mysteries somehow as beautiful as what passes for "literature" - yet so emotionally gripping that you hardly notice till you are done how beautiful the craft of what you just read really was. The characters are spectacular and each one is described with wonderful psychological details. One of my favorites is this description of the police detective:

"He was too thin, and his face wore a chronically haggard look...His manner was a mixture of uncertainty, followed by flurries of hasty action, followed by more uncertainty, as if he already regretted the just preceding action. He always acted new at any given proceedings, as if he were undertaking them for the first time. Even when they were old, and he should have been used to them."

Little gems like this are on almost every page of this book and they make for a wonderful reading experience you won't forget.

I envy anyone about to read Cornell Woolrich for the first time. This book is a great place to start.

This is a suspense story in which one knows the killer and his victims and where there is nothing random about his choice of victims. The murders are acts of revenge against an unpremeditated, accidental death - a death that one can only characterize as 'fateful.' A bottle has been thrown from an airplane, killing a young woman standing by a store window in a busy street. She is waiting for her fiance. Out of the hundreds of people walking that street, it is she who has been dealt this fatal blow. It is an accident that could not have been foreseen, though it can be argued, that its negligence might have been anticipated.

That is the beginning of the story. Woolrich wastes no time in setting the psychological tone. Her fiance arrives at their place of rendezvous, the scene of the accident, looks at the stricken woman, denies that it is his "Dorothy", then leaves the scene. Despite this initial denial, he knows, of course, that it is she, and from that moment a cataclysmic change occurs in his personality and his present world falls apart - a world of romance, marriage and well being. He sheds all innocence and becomes a man singularly possessed - a man seeking revenge against the carelessness of other men - determined to have them pay for this carelessness in the same way he has been forced to pay - destruction of what they prize most.

It is a story, wonderfully told - direct, gripping and so thoroughly credible that you read through it quickly, hoping against hope that it will have a happy ending. But it doesn't.

The best book in this area. It has everything you need to know in respiratory physiology and some basic principles are also useful in cardiovascular physiology. The organization is perfect, the thought questions and the questions at the end of each chapter are very well elaborated, you need to think to answer them and apply what you have read, not just memorization. The writing style is also very good, conversational. And I don't have words to describe the CD, is also perfect, the animations are extremely helpfull. If all medical books were organized like this book, no one would need to go to medschool.


ATTENTION! The CD does not work on Windows Vista.

This book was a pleasure to read and very good at walking a beginner through the concepts of respiratory physiology. Everything is presented in a logical way and it's surprising how much you can learn from this little book.

I am a pulmonary fellow who needed some review on respiratory physiology. i read the book cover to cover and found it an excellent resource to understand and correct my previous misunderstandings. the illustration in the CD were great and i recommend it to all fellows.

ghazwan acash

I ended up looking at a bunch of my friends' books, including West, before picking out this one to help me with the resp portion of my pathophys course. I loved this one. It was so easy to read - you know, it felt like someone was talking to me and just explaining things in a really plain, easy to understand way.

S&P is a lot more than just a book. I bought it because it was a recommended text for our class, but I had no idea I would be getting a whole web site that goes with the book. For most of the books I buy, the CD is pretty worthless with some junk pictures, but this book has a web site with diagrams where you can do things like adjusting O2 and CO2 levels or shunting percentage and see what happens. The picture actually changes right there in front of you! It's like having a little lab to illustrate the book topics, and the book even tells you how to use the diagrams and what cases to try. I'm a visual learner so this is where it's at for me. I wish they had the same thing for renal physiology.

My two year old grandson loves this book. He is crazy about trains anyway, but this is a fun way for him to interact with the pictures that have little doors that open and unfold the book as it becomes a long train.

I've yet to meet a Richard Scarry book I didn't like. This one is no exception. The story is entertaining; the book has flaps (a big plus w/my son); and the whole book folds out to a train. After reading it, my son likes to unfold the whole train and pretend he's in a train cage. Whatever that is. Too, a good travel book - 8 hour car ride, 4 hour plane ride. Been there, brought this book. No tears.

The storyline is great and a nice idea that the full train opens up displaying each car; but some pages have no flaps on them at all. Lift the flap books are great but need to have more than just a handful of flaps; especially for a R.Scarry book; kids that like those are into detail and to only put a handful of flaps on there kind of shortchanges it.

This book is very entertaining, young children will be fascinated by it. Although it is only nine inches long, it folds out to an eight foot train. The premise is that Bananas Gorilla has lost his bananas and is searching the train for them. Bananas Gorilla goes from car to car, and there are captions at the bottom of the pages describing the search. As a combination of story and advanced manipulatives for young children, there is no question that this book is one of the best.

My preschooler received this book in his Christmas stocking. We tuck it away to pull out on rainy days. Classic Scarry illustrations in a very creative format. This book is an A+++ in our home!

Better written than the coffee-table book this appears to be by weight and shape, and better written than a television-series companion, which this is, needs to be.

Great pictures, quotes from college football giants, enough information to be informative, enough stories and pictures of big games to be fun.

Sure, worlds not made and lives not changed, but this book is just fun.

I really enjoyed this book as the companion to the ESPN series of the same name. It's a must read for any college football fan!

An indispensable book, a real bible for all who love the american football and his history in the colleges across America.

I collect football books. As an historian, I look for books that cover the glorious tradition and history of the game. This book is perfect if you're looking for that theme. First of all, check out the cover. The cover tells the story of this book. It takes you back to a different era.

I love this book. It is one of my favorites. It covers everything and makes for a great coffee table book. I highly recommend this book if you enjoy college football.

The writer has given us a panoramic view of college football. The book covers the great coaches, teams and rivalries of the past 100 years. There are a number of wonderful photos sprinkled through the book as well. The writing touches on a number of subjects in brief articles, so don't look for any in depth stories about one particular program, coach or player. This is not a complaint, merely an observation. My only real complaint is the errors I found. Some photos misidentified players and bits of information were incorrect (minor errors, but annoying none the less). Overall, this is a great book for any college football fan.

I purchased the book to plan my tax strategy when selling an investment property that incurred significant gain. The sections on CRUTs, Installment Sales, and 1031 Tax Free Exchanges were very helpful and thorough. It is somewhat technical information, but written in a manner that a layman (non-CPA) can understand. My only complaint is that he doesn't address the implications of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) anywhere in the book, and it has become a VERY significant consideration for selling highly appreciated property. The other thing I noticed is that his evaluation of TIC 1031 Exchanges covers some of the risks, but neglects to mention that the vast majority of 1031 TICs include HUGE fees or loads. One I examined had a 20% profit to the sales company when the property was flipped to the 1031 investors. Most have 8% - 12% commissions to the salesman. Otherwise, I thought this was an extremely helpful book and I would recommend it...with the caveat that the reader get additional advice on the AMT.

Is a tremendously informative resource and well written so that a novice in real estate can understand and must have. It was so helpful, I purchased 4 more to give as gifts.

Understanding the tax implications of your investments is one of the most important things you can do as a current, or aspiring real estate investor. While Mr. Williamson's book will not make you a "tax expert" it will give you the foundational knowledge you will need in order to intelligently converse with your attorney/accountant, and to make wise investing decisions.

Chapters include information on: capital gains, tax basis, exclusions, exchanges, installment sales, and trusts. I have personally given this book to new agents in my company in order to familiarize them with the tax implications of real estate investing.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I should say that I am an attorney, real estate broker, investor, trainer, and author of another unique and highly readable book on real estate investing that can also be found here on Amazon -- The WealthLoop Series Beginner's Guide to Building Wealth Buying Houses: The Foolproof Roadmap to Real Estate Riches Without the Risks and Hassles of Landlording. Unlike many real estate investing books, it is written to be a genuine "How To" book that "takes you by the hand" and walks you through a step-by-step process for getting started in real estate investing -- investors across the country are giving it rave reviews. The book also includes sample leases, forms, and checklists, so that you can actually go out and implement the investing strategy it teaches as soon as you're done reading. You might want to check out the companion CD too -- The WealthLoop Series Beginner's Guide to Building Wealth Buying Houses (Combo Audio/Data CD): Author's Audio Commentary Plus Downloadable 32-page Marketing Manual, Checklists, Spreadsheets, and Forms.

A related program that's well worth checking out is:

The WealthLoop Series Beginner's Guide to Personal Wealth Creation (Combo Audio/Data CD): Audio Seminar With Downloadable 40-Page Action Manual and Active Link Library.

I believe that Williamson has written an informative book that's worthy of your time. Buy it if you are serious about making a success of real estate investing.

I have read a number of books about real estate tax planning, and this is by far the best. It is clear, to the point, and very readable. The author goes through the basics of how a capital gains basis is calculated, rules about stepping up basis, primary residence exclusion rules, etc. He then discusses various ways of deferring or eliminating capital gain consequences via 1031, installment sales, private annuity trusts, charitable remainder trusts and Roth IRAs. The chapter on private annuity trusts is one of the least known, yet most valuable strategies that exists. Buy this book!

This book answered all my tax and property questions quickly and precisely. It was well written and perfect for someone who is not a CPA or property specialist. Highly recommended.

My two little girls absolutely love these songs and are always asking me to play them. Mom loves the introduction to each song and the words that accompany the tapes. Truly a great way for teaching our children God's words and His stories. Now if they would only come out with these on CD!!!

This is one of the most entertaining kid's Bible songs. It is different than the overdone praise songs, and my church kids love it! we did a play using the songs a few years ago, it was amazing! I would love to do it again, but I need it on CD and in split track or instrumental (even better) pleaaaaaaaase :-)

Patricia

This set is really fun but the quality is not so good because it's on cassette.

I am amazed at this series. My 4 year-old daughter has listened to it since she was born and she continues to ask for it 95% of the time we are driving in the car. It never gets old because all of the stories are true and accurately presented. Not only is the presentation fun and entertaining but it is amazingly accurate to the Bible in a concise way that children can grasp. It gives the listener a fabulous knowledge of the chronological events in the Bible since it follows the books of the Bible in order.

This series uses a variety of music types and the adults and children singing have close to perfect pitch and excellent vocal ability, which is a plus when training a young ear. This is the absolute best Bible music I have heard for young ones and I've purchased many that are on the market.

I am also very much interested in seeing this on CD or MP3.

I bought this for my toddler, so he could listen to it while we ride to and from 'school'. It's very up-beat, informative and fun! The songs are catchy & I find myself singing along! =O) I just hope they come out with it on CD, due to us buying a new vehicle w/out a cassette player! =O( I highly recommend purchasing it!

I'm still majoring in veterinary medicine and this book helps me a lot. It has achieved more than my expectations, things are easier to understand, the pictures are wonderful and really helpful.
I'm really going to use its information forever.

This book got me through my internal medicine final exam in a way that Ettinger never would. What's more, it got me through my first year in small animal practice as well. Ettinger is fine if you want to look up details on obscure diseases, but like other reviewers have already written, I agree that this is the book you need for the real world. It's user friendly, easy to read, and with great illustrations. After a few years in small animal practice you might want to get Ettinger as well, but start out with this one. You won't regret it. The neurology section could've been more comprehensive, though.

this book is absolutely fantastic. its easy to read and seems to have everything in it. i definitely recommend it! :D

As a vet student in my clinical years, I found this book very helpful. It has a little bit of everything which is what you really need for a good starting base. Likely to be a good reference in the office. Still requires the surgery volume for more information on techniques.

As a veterinary student, I have found myself using this book on a weekly basis. If you are looking for a quick overview of specific diseases or a complete description of diseases you are learning for the first time, this book is an excellent resource to have in your collection. Every practicing veterinarian should have this text in their library collection.

This book can be best described as a "look into the depths and crevices of the soul of a black man". Mr. Parks, although still young in this game called life, has captured through his experiences, the essence of his mind's eye. With each word....with each phrase....with each line.....I get a front row seat to his soul.

I look forward to the next masterpiece.

This book was very well thought out and was creative. Although harsh at times, it kind of brings a certain reality into perspective. I beleive that many of us live two or more lives, a professional life of today in 2001, and another life at home that has been passed to you from generation to generation. Mr. Parks put both lives together in fine print for all to see, like it or not. That's the beuty and the brutality of it. He kind of made me feel like there were hidden messages between the words that either you saw or you didn't but either way the overall outcome was what you wanted it to be. The effect this book had on me was more than just the pleasure of reading a different reality on life, but it served me as a motivator to get me to express myself somehow. It was very motivating and entertaining. It shows a true freedom of expression to it. I like how he left everything up to the reader to interpret, giving anyone and everyone a different understanding of what Mr. Parks was trying to say. This is definately one of those books that you could read over and over and truly get something different out of it everytime you read it. Motivation or simply entertainment, even a lesson or two, this book is capable of touching a wide arena of readers.

Time-that is what's captured in Richard A. Parks' work. He takes you through several periods of his own life, and each page you turn reveals a different layer. Park's book allows you to see the warm, funny, angry, compassionate sides of a man. It even allows you to see vulnerability, which increases the impact of this man's words. His outspoken essays are thought provoking, and so are each of his poetic tributes on life, love, loss, and strength. You get to grow with him as you experience his life through his words, and it is a compilation of work that everyone can truly vibe with, no matter your age. This writer's talents are unlimited, and people will be able to read his work throughout time. He has definitely left his mark in the best way---through his words.

Poet Richard A. Parks, Jr. pens poetry which swings the closet door of his personal experiences wide open. Exposed are some of the storms he survived, loves he lost and lessons he learned along his path to manhood.

Someone Is Sleeping In My Head is definitely for those who believe that our brothers don't know how to communicate effectively. Richard A. Parks, Jr. disproves this theory as he invites readers into his head, his heart and his soul with his brilliantly expressed poetry.

I saw an ad for this book at a web site called Mental Satin that my wife told me about and this book was featured there. I saw the title and the artwork on the cover and i figured this was just a bit too deep for my taste. But i was pleasantly surprised. This is a funny book. Parks has his moments of deepness and the reality of his experiences stand on thier own but this young brotha made me laugh at things i never felt were humorous. His essays, "Blockbuster versus Bankbuster" and "Where Are All The Single Black Women?" had me in tears. I enjoy books that break things down to levels where we all can understand. Mr. Parks did that for me and i thank him for that. Well done sir....well done.