Ross Books

Tommy-a brave born leader., Chuckie- a causios scardy-cat., Sussie-akind and smart helper., Angelica-a bossy spoiled brat., Phil-a disgusting baby who eats worms and dirt., Lil-a disgusting baby who eats worms and dirt., Dil-anoying,yet playful young baby. Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, Sussie, Angelica, and Dil are hunting for gold! They started off in Tommy and Dil's backyard but when they crawl through some bushes and suddenly appear in California where there is a huge gold rush. They meat new friends and work together to try and find the gold to buy Reptar Bars they want. Do you think they can find the gold? Read this book and find out! I give this book a five star rating because it has really funny parts including one where Angelica say she hates bossy people.

Tommy-a brave born leader., Chuckie- a causios scardy-cat., Sussie-akind and smart helper., Angelica-a bossy spoiled brat., Phil-a disgusting baby who eats worms and dirt., Lil-a disgusting baby who eats worms and dirt., Dil-anoying,yet playful young baby. Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, Sussie, Angelica, and Dil are hunting for gold! They started off in Tommy and Dil's backyard but when they crawl through some bushes and suddenly appear in California where there is a huge gold rush. They meat new friends and work together to try and find the gold to buy Reptar Bars they want. Do you think they can find the gold? Read this book and find out! I give this book a five star rating because it has really funny parts including one where Angelica say she hates bossy people.

Tommy-a brave born leader., Chuckie-a causios scardy-cat., Sussie-a kind and smart helper., Angelica-a bossy spoiled brat., Phil-a disgusting baby who eats worms and dirt., Lil-a disgusting baby who eats worms and dirt., Dil-an anoying, yet playful young baby. If you like a book that has a lot of adventures this is the book for you. In this book Tommy and his gang are hunting for gold. They start off in Tommy and Dil's backyard, but when they crawl through some bushes they find themselves in California where there is a huge gold rush. The gang ends up getting half of a map after Angelica sings a song very badly. Then they find some people who have the other half of the map. Do you think they can work together to find the gold? Read this book and find out. I give this book a five star rating because it has funny parts including one where Angelica says she hates bossy people.

Tommy and Dil, their cousin Angelica, and their friends Susie, Phil, Lil, and Chuckie all listen to Grandpa Lou tell a story about prospecting for gold. The kids decide to search for gold, Angelica so she can buy Cynthia play sets, and the others so they can buy lots of Reptar Bars. Before they know it, they travel back in time to 1849, during the days of the real California Gold Rush. The babies team up with some locals to follow a map to a lost gold mine. Along the way they face steep hills, dangerous beasts, raging rivers, and terrible rain storms. But they are determined to continue on to find the gold. This was a cute and funny book that I reccomend to all Rugrats fans, young and old.

Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, Angelica, Susie, and Dil (along with Spike) are off on one of their biggest adventures yet. They're travelling back in time to 1849, the time when everyone was talking about going to California to hunt for gold. And when Tommy and the rest of the crew get a hold of half a map to the "mother lode" (the largest amount of gold all in one place, up in the mountains where all the gold in the rivers come from), they know that they have to find the other half if they're ever going to be able to buy tons of Reptar Bars (or in Angelica's case, the Cynthia Skiing Set, the Cynthia Supermall, the Cynthia Jet, the Cynthia....you get the picture). When their map is stolen and it leads them to the other half of the map, they make new friends who will help them find their treasure. But with mountain lions,grizzly bears, rapids, and theives, the question is not only "Will the get the gold?". It's "Will they get the gold...and survive?" Join your favorite cartoon characters in this hilarious and adventurous book! I recommend it for fans of the Rugrats cartoon, no matter what age they are.

This version of Aristotle's De Anima is the criticial edition by W.D. Ross. It does not contain an English translation nor does it contain Ross's commentary on the text, which is available in a larger edition. Nonetheless, it contains all the critical notes concerning textual differences of the manuscripts used by Ross. This text will be beneficial for anyone interested in working through Aristotle's De Anima in the original Greek, whether you are a serious student of Greek or of philosophy. Finally, this edition has a handy index to help you locate where Aristotle uses many of the Greek words in the text.

How will Virtual Reality and other new technology change you, the way that you feel, and the way that you react to your surroundings? One cannot even begin to answer this important question without first reading De Anima. This masterpiece reflects on the five senses, their relation to each other, and their relation to the 'common sense' (soul) that binds them. De Anima is a valuable insight into the fundamental mechanism that governs the way that we learn, act, and live. New technology is a sword that cuts both ways. Will we become inactive, lose our passion or even our humanity? Written centuries ago, this book will not give you any answers on a platter nor will the word Virtual Reality even be mentioned. This book is, however, filled with timeless wisdom that has survived the ages. De Anima will prove to be an indispensible tool for those who have a sincere desire to study the way that new technology is changing our senses and how these changes may affect the future of our noble race.

Aristotle's short but profoundly influential work, De Anima, is set within a
rich supporting text authored by Hugh Lawson-Tancred, the Penquin edition's
translator and editor, that absorbs almost three-fourths of this volume.
Besides his lengthy introduction, the editor provides a useful glossary
of translations, summaries before each chapter, copious endnotes, and a
short bibliography, but no index.

Unlike more widely read, fully formed, straightforward books by Aristotle,
such as Politics and Ethics, De Anima asserts cryptic ideas and advances
viewpoints that seem quite strange today. The editor's Introduction addresses
such potential impediments for the Aristotelean neophyte and amplifies
problematic issues of interest to philosophers of any acquaintance. Aristotle's
subject is a general "principle of life" intrinsic to all plants and animals,
not any contemporary notion about the soul (psyche) suggested by its English
title, On The Soul. Aristotle's soul includes his psychology and topics such
as sensation and thought. Lawson-Tancred argues that Aristotle is indifferent
to the issue preoccupying epistomologists and psychologists during recent
centuries, Descartes's division of subjectivity into the body and mind. He claims
that Aristotle is concerned with general features of life, not with purely human
issues like consciousness. In discounting consciousness, Aristotle concurs with
anti-Cartesian positivists, but Lawson-Tancred argues that when Aristotle
says the soul is substance, he really means it, contradicting physicalist
contentions that it is an epiphenomenon or a list of special attributes.
Aristotle's soul is substance, but Aristotle rejects reducing the soul's
properties to the body's material.

Teleology is explanation implicating final causes, e.g., things fulfill
purposes for which they were created. Scientists reject creation and
ultimate purpose, and censure Aristotle for his teleological explanations.
Regarding the soul, however, Aristotle suggests that to understand biological
phenomena, the arrangement of material and its relationship to functions it
performs is key. Recent rethinking about Aristotle's functionalism has
reinvigorated his status in modern biology. Theologians generally view Aristotle's
work favorably, especially his emphasis on built-in purpose and final causes.
Lawson-Tancred recounts Aristotle's powerful influence on intellectual history
from his immediate successors, to assimilation in the neo-Platonic West, through
incorporation by Islamic and Christian theologians, connections that made
De Anima so important for over 2000 years.

Lawson-Tancred also discusses Aristotle's personal history and intellectual
development; his mentor, Plato, and their mutual influence; ideas of
other philosophers that Aristotle encountered, and De Anima in context
of his other works. He concludes by criticizing the interpretations of

Aristotle by the philosophers Brentano and Wilkes. Lawson-Tancred helps
the reader to understand many ideas, but two essential concepts Aristotle
developed elsewhere are prerequisite to understanding De Anima:
entelechy (entelecheia) and substance (ousia). Substance or essence is the
fundamental reality of existence. Form, Matter, and their composite
are types of substances. Matter is the inanimate, elemental substrate of
which things are composed, e.g., earth made into a statue. Form is the
structure and function outlined by a formula (logos), e.g., a statue artfully
shaped to resemble a woman. Things exist either in actuality (putting
to use) or potentiality (unexploited capacity). Form is actuality;
Matter is potentiality. Aristotle's theory is that Form combines with
Matter following the the Form's plan to actualize potential. Entelechy
is the possession of this intrinsic goal that is realized when Form and
Matter combine. Thus, Aristotle's teleological approach is called "Entelechism."
Aristotle uses entelechy repeatedly to describe the soul, as the following
summary of De Anima shows.

In Book I, Aristotle describes his subject: the soul, "the first
principle of living things," and considers its relation to intellect,
emotion, etc. He comments on other philosophers's works: whether
the soul is material, and what kind; its characteristic features
(it moves, senses, and lacks body); how it produces bodily movement;
etc. He criticizes theories that the soul is quantity or harmony or
participates in the whole universe. He concludes that the soul lacks
motion and is not material nor made of elements. Instead, the soul
comprises several faculties: e.g., cognition, appetite.

Book II begins with an important formulation: the soul is the "form of
the living body which potentially has life" (the organism's first actuality).
Having a soul distinguishes living from inanimate objects. The soul's
nutritive faculty is essential for all organisms, but animals have the
faculty of sensation, separating them from plants. Thus begins a hierarchy
of faculties from nutrition to intellect. In sensation, the sense organ
and sense-object, like the soul and body, participate in the Form/Matter
relationship. The sense organ receives the object's Form, not its matter,
in Aristotle's words, "as the wax takes the sign from the ring without the
iron and gold." He discusses each of the five senses, and makes a famous
distinction among perceptual elements (special, common, incidental).

Aristotle concludes discussing sensation in Book III by proposing functions
of the perceptive faculty that integrate individual senses. Imagination,
a faculty producing imagery, mediates between sensation and intellect.
Aristotle's remarks about intellect are among his most renowned, fecund,
and difficult. He describes the intellectual faculty, which includes thinking

and supposition, with the same physiological approach of his sensory theory.
The organ of thought receives the Form of the thought-object to realize thinking.
He calls the intellect a repository of Forms and distinguishes the active from
the passive intellect, providing inspiration for Thomas Aquinas's psychology.
Aristotle concludes with a discussion of motivation, i.e., what puts the
organism into action.

No other work contains a psychological theory like that presented in De Anima,
excepting Aquinas's derivative. Its resemblance to attribute (behaviorist)
theories of the mind cannot obscure Aristotle's radically different foundation.
His Form-Matter and Actuality-Potentiality concepts are not explanatory, only
a framework for inquiry. Its relevance, as Lawson-Tancred notes, to modern
psychology depends upon identifying an empirical approach to Aristotle's Form.
Aristotle's proposal that life has, or is, a principle provides an alternative
point of departure for scientists who find contemporary materialist dogma lacking
direction. De Anima, one of the most important books ever written, and long
neglected by scientific psychology, still puts life in an eternal debate.

I read these works for a graduate seminar on Aristotle.

Soul- De Anima Latin for Greek word Psuche=Life. It is a Phenomenology of Life. Living things are Aristotle¡¦s primary interest. Renee Descartes says thinking is only aspect of soul, not life. For Descartes the soul is the mind. Aristotle classifies features of living things. A soul can¡¦t be a body, (like a corpse). Psuche=life is a living form of the body, the phenomenon of life. Capacity to live is what he means. Ergon=function or work, thus when he talks about soul it is a body¡¦s function. Thus, a corpse is a deactivated body. Dunamis=capacity, Energia= actuality, thus both words are active words and can be seen as ¡§activating capacity.¡¨ Like a builder while building a house, past potential but not actual until the house is complete.
Entelecheia=¡¨living things have their ends inside them.¡¨ A living being has an end in itself.

What is the soul? Psuche= soul is being working toward ends of a self-moving body having the capacity to live. This is another way of talking about desire (like an animal that is hungry). Desire-animals have this as we do. Orexis=desire. The phenomenology of desire is to be motivated towards something that is lacking at the time, hunger, etc. Pleasure and pain.
Desire and action there are 3 kinds of desire.

1. Appetite like hunger and sex.
2. Emotion-like love not on crude level as appetite.
3. Wish-desire of the mind, (I want a good job).

All three strive towards something that is lacking. ¡§Desire is movement of the soul.¡¨ Human life is a set of desires. Human desires are more complicated. Desires clash like dieting and appetite.

¡§All humans desire to know.¡¨ This is the first line of the Metaphysics. Knowledge examined in terms of distinction between matter and form, perception has to do with intelligible form. Perception takes in visible form of something without the matter. Like imagination, an animal and human can do this. All knowledge starts with perception thus memory. Ultimate knowledge is intelligible form from visible form but mind is also using abstractions, this is a human capacity only. Humans use language to do this. Animals have image of a cat, word ¡§cat¡¨ is an abstraction for us. True knowledge organizes language.

Seing<³being seen. Two beings, seer and seen, this is act of vision it is only one actuality and two potentialities. In effect, Aristotle is saying that the capacity to see can only be actualized by seeing something. However, he goes the other way as well; something seeable only actualizes its seeability by being seen. One actuality, two potentials, the potential to see, the potential to be seen. In the modern world since Descartes, it is spoken as two actualities, the mind, and the outside world and there is a split between the two, two actualities, the mind as a separate thing and the object as a separate thing being seen. This is the source of the classic problem of skepticism. When there is seeing obviously you have two beings, the seer and the seen, but the act of vision is one actuality. Aristotle does not have this skeptical problem because he seems to stipulate this idea of single actuality and the whole point of the capacity to know is meant to hook up with things known. The whole point of knowable things is to be known by knower¡¦s, that is what he means by one actuality, thus there is no split between the mind and the world. There is no purely inside and outside. It isn¡¦t that minds are in here and the world is out there, and we might wonder about how they hook up. The nature of things and the nature of the mind are meant to hook up. Thus, Aristotle is not a radical skeptic like Descartes or Hume. Act of seeing the desk is joint actuality of seer and seen.

Actual hearing and actual sounding occur at the same time. Berkeley¡¦s famous question¡K¡¨If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound? For Berkeley, to be is to be perceived. Aristotle answers Berkeley¡¦s question that it does make a sound, but you have to have the capacity to hear, it is a joint venture. The mind and the world are not separated like for Descartes. Aristotle doesn¡¦t buy the idea that ¡§everything in my mind can be false¡¨ like the skeptics argue, Aristotle would say this is impossible. Getting things true and false are part of what the mind has to do, but the possibility that the whole mental realm could be put into question is impossible. Thus, he doesn¡¦t have to answer the question put to skeptics. ¡§If you are right that there is a radical doubt about the possibility of our knowledge hooking up with reality, why would the human situation ever come to pass in this way that it is possible that we could be totally wrong.¡¨ The skeptics answer we are not sure that we are wrong, they are saying we can¡¦t be sure that we are right. If that were the case then Aristotle can say, well is this a recipe for the human condition? One can be skeptical about this or that, but not about everything.

Aristotle moves from perception to thought. The thinking of the world and world to be thought is actualization. Nous=highest capacity of intellect for Aristotle. Mind is potential and until it thinks isn¡¦t actualization. The implication of this the world wants to be known according to Aristotle. The world also activates our desire. One actualization of two potentialities. Taking in form without matter that is what knowledge is. A knowing soul cannot be separation from the body. The mind has built in capacity to understand for Aristotle, no actual knowledge until intellect engages with objects. ¡§Actually thinking mind is the thing that it thinks. In this respect the soul is all existing things.¡¨ Soul is capacity to think the world in the passage.

I recommend Aristotle¡¦s works to anyone interested in obtaining a classical education, and those interested in philosophy. Aristotle is one of the most important philosophers and the standard that all others must be judged by.

This book is something that everyone who is interested in truth and beauty should read. Every other philisophical writing is a mere foot note to this book and this particular edition is so accurate that it doesn't leave you wondering why.

...as a followup for Deadroll. It extends the previous book which seemed to end abruptly without proper ending. The writing style of Greg Moody is very natural, so the book reads very fast. So read the Dead Air and learn bomber's fate.

This review is long over due. I read Dead Air many months ago. I'm just now coming down from the exhilaration of another fine Moody murder mystery novel. Moody once again blends the two things he knows best...cycling and TV. He has written one of the finest and most exciting fight scenes I've ever read. If you think you know how this one ends....think again.

Greg Moody's books are a fun habit. If you have any interest whatsoever in professional cycling (and who doesn't after Lance Armstrong's feats) read Greg's books. You'll get an inside, albeit wild and crazy look at the peloton. You definitely should read the books in the order written (this is the fifth in the series), to understand the history of Will Ross, a washed-up bike racer who has years of European pro cycling under his belt, but always manages to get in one last ride, or one last season, in each of the books. In the latest, he is on staff at a Denver TV news station, and is sent to cover a ride through the Rockies. Mayhem predictably follows, and Will must try to clear his name, find and outwit a mad-bomber, get along with his mobster in-laws, and take yet another ride-of-his-life. Hang on to your cycling shorts!

Fans of Will Ross will not be disappointed with this much anticipated followup to Deadroll. My only problem is I read the book too fast. I guess I'll have to start over with book 1 and read the whole series. Long live Will Ross!

Dead Air is another challenging mystery by Greg Moody. I so enjoyed getting to know new characters as Moody peels away the layers of their personalities, but I was also glad to encounter familiar old characters from his previous novels. The book flows with glimpses into the insanity of the villain and the T.V. Station! Along with the prose are gritty descriptions of life on a bike. Reading a book by Greg Moody is like choosing between plain vanilla ice cream or a hot fudge sundae... he makes you work a little harder than a "canned formula" mystery, but the satisfaction is well worth the effort!!! This is a great read and should be added to your summer book list!

This book should be read by anyone whatever the personal situation is. It helps particularly when you are about to loose or if you have lost a loved one.
We know nothing about death and we are never prepared to face it. Reading this book gives comfort, helps to ease the pain, and also teaches us to respect and honour all the living as well as the importance of living fully and consciously the time we have.

One of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross's books, 'On Death and Dying', is a classic work in the field, still used to educate and inform medical, counseling, and pastoral professionals since its original publication in the 1960s. Kubler-Ross did extensive research in the field by actually talking to those in the process of dying, something that had hitherto been considered taboo and an unthinkable, uncaring thing to do. Kubler-Ross asked for volunteers, and never pressured people to do or say anything they didn't want to. One of her unexpected discoveries was that the medical professionals were more reluctant to participate than were the patients, who quite often felt gratitude and relief at being able to be heard.

This book, 'Death: The Final Stage of Growth' continued that research; Kubler-Ross is the editor here rather than an author, and the text is primarily in others' words. This includes other doctors and psychiatrists, patients, and family members. Kubler-Ross in her research spoke to families, and followed people through their ailments, sometimes to recovery, but most often to their death. She let the people guide her in her research; here she lets them speak for themselves for the most part.

This caring approach was often an aggravation for Kubler-Ross and her staff, because they would know what the patient had been told but was not yet ready to face. Kubler-Ross recounts stories of attempts to deal with death in different ways; denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance -- in fact, the various stages of grief were first recognised in Kubler-Ross's research. There are those who dislike the 'stages; theory of grief, but it is important to know (as the quote above indicates) that these are not set-in-stone processes, but rather dialectical and perichoretic in nature, ebbing and flowing like the tide, so that where a person was 'stage-wise' would vary from meeting to meeting.

Kubler-Ross drew together a diverse collection of views for this book, finding meaning both in life and death. This book provides insights for health-care professionals and clergy, as well as the families, friends, and companions of those who are dying. There are insights here to help cope and find meaning and resolution in death.

Death is a difficult subject to comprehend, and even more difficult to deal with. Kubler-Ross includes an anonymous letter from a student nurse who discovered she was dying, and wrote a letter to fellow hospital workers giving a first-person account of what it is like to be on the receiving end of the treatment - something which, like it or not, most of us will eventually face. This is part of our common humanity.

It is important not to approach this subject merely as an intellectual or theoretical subject -- it is not sufficient to subscribe to a 'pie-in-the-sky' kind of theology about afterlife the denies the emotions in this world. Even those with firm belief and faith will still experience the loss in this world.

This book is lovingly written, well-researched and full of insight. While some of Kubler-Ross's ideas have over time become oversimplified, and some research has been superseded, her example of bringing a difficult subject to the area of regular conversation and consideration cannot be underestimated, and this book is part of that legacy.

'On Death and Dying' Author Dies at 78

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, a psychiatrist who revolutionized the way the world looks at terminally ill patients with her book "On Death and Dying" and later as a pioneer for hospice care, has died. She was 78.

She died Tuesday of natural causes at her Scottsdale home, family members said.

Published in 1969, "On Death and Dying" focused on the needs of the dying and offered her theory that they go through five stages of grief - denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

"Those who learned to know death, rather than to fear and fight it, become our teachers about life," she once wrote. In another passage, she wrote: "Dying is nothing to fear. It can be the most wonderful experience of your life. It all depends on how you have lived."

Kubler-Ross wrote 12 books after "On Death and Dying," including how to deal with the death of a child and an early study on the AIDS epidemic.

"She brought the taboo notion of death and dying into the public consciousness," said Stephen Connor, vice president of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.

In 1979, she received the Ladies' Home Journal Woman of the Decade Award. In 1999, Time magazine named Kubler-Ross as one of the "100 Most Important Thinkers" of the past century.

Born in Zurich, Switzerland, Kubler-Ross graduated from medical school at the University of Zurich in 1957. She came to New York the following year and was appalled by hospital treatment of dying patients.

Whoever has seen the horrifying appearance of the postwar European concentration camps would be similarly preoccupied," she said.

She began her work with the terminally ill at the University of Colorado Medical Center in Denver, and was a clinical professor of behavioral medicine and psychiatry at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

Kubler-Ross began giving lectures featuring terminally ill patients, who talked about what they were going through. That led to her 1969 book.

"Dying becomes lonely and impersonal because the patient is often taken out of his familiar environment and rushed to an emergency room," she wrote.

"He may cry for rest, peace and dignity, but he will get infusions, transfusions, a heart machine, or tracheostomy. ... He will get a dozen people around the clock, all busily preoccupied with his heart rate, pulse, electrocardiogram or pulmonary functions, his secretions or excretions - but not with him as a human being."

The most important thing Kubler-Ross did was bring death out of the dark for the medical community, said Carol Baldwin, a research associate professor of medicine at the University of Arizona and who worked as a nurse in one of the nation's first hospices in 1979.

"She really set the standards for how to communicate with the dying and their loved ones," Baldwin said recently. "Families learned that it's not a scary thing to watch someone die."

Kubler-Ross is survived her two children, Kenneth Ross and Barbara Lee Ross, and two granddaughters.

Kubler-Ross shares with us her life's work experiences with death and dying persons and how dealing with our own death parallels with our everyday life choices. Death comes to us in small ways everyday. There are many things in life that we have to die to, inner growth depends on this. Dying to small things prepares us for the moment of bodily death. Our ego for one thing is the hardest to die to, how we love to be right and not give in to someone else's opinion, how we love to be recognized for our work, our successes, our education, our money, our home, cars etc. To let go of our ego takes a lifetime but it is well worth the effort and gives you acceptance and peace of soul. The practice of letting go in small things prepares you for the bigger decisions of life. Your life becomes less petty and more human, less superficial and more realized, less important and more compassionate. It is not an easy lesson but one worth working through the stages of death and dying. Victor Frankl in his book "Man's Search for Meaning " also show how finite is our existence. Anthony DeMello in his book Sadhana, a Way to God: Christian Exercises in Eastern Form reveals how important it is to detach ourselves from desire and also the Dalai Lama lives a life full of compassion although he has been exiled from his own country for over 35 years. To be or not to be that is the question.

Death: The Final Stage of Growth is an especially enlightening work not simply because of the varied and knowledgeable contributed views to this particular volume, but because it approaches death and dying not from a scientific or psychological standpoint, but rather, from a cultural, sociological and mixed religious context. The essays that focus on the Eskimo, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist approach to death and dying are deeply taken into account, as are their rituals, their cultural approaches and their belief systems. But though all the faith approaches differ in one way or another, the unifying human elements are-for the most part-a consistent grief, fear, faith of a higher authority and the oncoming trials and tribulations that dying can and will entail, all of which unites us. Dignity should begin at the conception of life, and it does not cease until the last breath is taken and arrangements for what follows are respectfully set up. But in many cases, as illustrated in the section entitled: "The Organizational Context of Dying" by Hans O. Mauksch, once a person is diagnosed as having a terminal illness and thus becomes a full-time patient, (s)he, after stripping and handing over their possessions, is banded like a piece of property They then are quickly yet efficiently-like in the military or in religious life-slowly deloused of their sense of autonomy; they are gradually assilimated to the institution. And their physical and mental definitions are not fully acknowledged. It is not done out of spiteful cruelty, just ignorant insensitivity. But through psychological studies-as done by Kubler-Ross as well as others in the field-and radical restructuring in pallative care, hospitals are really no longer deemed as the menacing sick houses of olden times. Rather, the patient as a whole is acknowledged, not merely the physical self. The soul, the intelligence, the humor and wisdom. The "all" of the person is taken into account, and as that is so, the hospital environment in its own right changes for the better. But it stems from communication and compassion and facing what for almost all of us is the ultimate and insurmountable phobia. All in all, Death: The Final Stage of Growth is another excellent and necessary Kubler-Ross offering.

This is the only authorized biography book by Def Leppard. A must have for every Lep fan!

I BOUGHT THIS BOOK BACK WHEN IT WAS FIRST RELEASED, AND I BELIEVE THAT I READ IT IN AS LITTLE AS 4 HOURS!!! THE PREVIOUS PEOPLE WHO HAVE REVIEWED THIS BOOK ARE CORRECT IN SAYING THAT ONCE YOU PICK IT UP, YOU WILL NEVER WANT TO PUT IT DOWN AGAIN!

INFORMATIVE, FUNNY(EVEN DOWNRIGHT HYSTERICAL AT TIMES-THANKS PHIL AND STEVE!!!), PERSONAL AND EVER HONEST, THIS STORY BY DAVID FRICKE IS THE MOST THOROUGH AND CONSISTANTLY ACCURATE BIOGRAPHY THAT COULD'VE EVER BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT THIS BAND. AND THAT SAYS A LOT SEEING I HAVE BEEN A FAN SINCE 1980 AND HAVE READ PRACTICALLY EVERYTHING THAT COULD BE WRITTEN ABOUT THEM!!

DAVID FRICKE SPENT A WEEK WITH THE GUYS IN HOLLAND INTERVIEWING THEM AND GETTING TO KNOW THEM (LUCKY GUY!!!) AND THE READER CAN TELL FROM THE WAY THAT HE TELLS THEIR STORY. GREAT JOB DAVID!!! NEXT TIME CAN I BE YOUR ASSISTANT AND DO THE INTERVIEWING?! OK, OK, BACK TO REALITY!! LOL

AS FOR ROSS HALFIN'S PICTORIAL, WELL ALL I CAN SAY IS THANKS FOR THE AWESOME AND SOMETIMES INTIMATE PICS(JOE IN THE BATHTUB FOR EXAMPLE), THEY WERE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!! I HAVE LOVED ROSS'S PICTURES OF THE BAND EVER SINCE THE EARLY 80'S IN CIRCUS AND HIT PARADER MAGAZINES AND HE JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER AS THE YEARS GO ON. KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK, ROSS!!!

THIS BOOK IS A MUST HAVE FOR EVERY DEF LEPPARD FANS COLLECTION, NO MATTER THE PRICE IT IS TOTALLY WORTH IT!!!

ANYONE WHO WANTS TO TALK ABOUT THIS BOOK OR DEF LEPPARD FEEL FREE TO EMAIL ME! I LOVE TALKING ABOUT THIS BAND!!!

AND IF YOU NEED A HOME MORTGAGE LOAN, EMAIL ME TOO! INTEREST RATES ARE AT AN ALL-TIME LOW RIGHT NOW! SORRY, NEED TO PLUG THE BUSINESS ANYTIME I GET THE CHANCE!!!

LORI

By far, the best comprehensive book on Def Leppard! A must have for fans! I purchased the book approximately nine or ten years ago, and I love to look at it still!

Def Leppard fans, you must purchase this book! It is by far the greatest book on this planet. It tells the complete story of Def Leppard, from their early days in a Sheffield spoon factory up to their fourth album, Hysteria. Author David Fricke has done an incredible job writing this book. It is clearly written and very informative. The photos, courtesy of Ross Halfin, are amazing. Once you pick this book up, you will not want to put it down. Your Def Leppard collection is not complete without Animal Instinct!!!

Animal Instinct is the best rock book I've ever read. It's filled with great photography courtesy of Ross Halfin, and the author, David Fricke of Rolling Stone Magazine, has done a superb writing job. Not only has he done exhaustive research, but he's injected the tragedy-ridden story of this band with healthy doses of good humor throughout. I've read this book over and over again, and it's still entertaining. The chapter on "The Terror Twins" (who are, of course, Steve Clark and Phil Collen) is absolutely hilarious. And Mr. Fricke's way with words in describing the birth of Def Leppard, the recording of Pyromania, Rick Allen's accident, the band's struggles to record Hysteria both with and without Mutt Lange, and everything in between, leaves you feeling as if you've lived through it along with them. There are other Def Leppard biographies, but there's not one to compare with Animal Instinct. If you're a Def Leppard fan and have not read this book, beg, borrow (but please don't steal my copy) or buy it for yourself. You must read it! And if you're not a Def Leppard fan, beware - once you read this book, you will be! - Laurie Compton

I found this publication very informative as in a single source, I was able to read about all of the productivity methods and measurement tools in the marketplace. As a novice to concepts like Six Sigma and activity based costing, it was a great to find in a few pages an explanation and practical implementation tips for these concepts and more. Starting with the overall history in this marketplace and then moving quickly into practical guidance, the author displayed a great command of the topics. I also saw how he blended the productivity measures to create a more meaningful accounting of a business operations....I just wish more companies took this approach.

With over forty years of experience in helping dozens of companies to become more profitable, the author gives us the fruits of that experience by cutting through many of the extraneous elements of traditional accounting methods. Being competitive has always been about change and adapting to new paradigms. This books and its theories are a "next generation" of principles that move accounting systems into the next century. Just don't tell your competition about it.

Lynn's book provides a very good overview of the methodologies being used today to improve corporate performance. We have suggested the use of this book to several of our clients so that performance improvements resulting from Lean Manufacturing and Lean/Six Sigma implementation can be accurately measured and tracked. Larry Steele - Steele Consulting Group

A very substantive and motivating read. Lynn did a great job of capturing me while showing me the way to how corporate performance managment will take place in the 21st Century. The material is integrated and very useful.

Operating a lean manufacturing facility is much different than a traditional order launched batch based operating system. The concept of eliminating all non-value adding activites while producing only customer demand flies in the face of the standard cost absorbtion based cost accounting systems used today. Not only does his book discuss the challenges of Lean to GAAP accounting systems, Mr. Northrup desribes alternative accounting methods and the ways to implement them within the guidelines of GAAP. This is a must read for the Lean Manufacturer!

As a mystery writer myself, I have a list of my own favorites from whom I learn. No one does it better than Ross Thomas -- a writer's writer.

Victor Orcutt of Victor Orcutt Associates has discovered an ingenious way of earning large amounts of money. If a community becomes disgusted with rampant corruption in the ranks of its civic leaders, Victor will come in and clean things up. But Victor has found that before bad government can be reformed it has to first become even more corrupt. When the good citizens of Swankerton, a southern gulfcoast city, hire his firm to rid them of their thoroughly corrupt municipal government, he in turn hires Lucifer Dye to carry out the task of making the corruption worse.

Who is Lucifer Dye? Why he's the novel's protagonist and first person narrator. Born in Montana and raised in Japanese occupied Shanghai, Lucifer's biography is an exceedingly interesting one. For the past decade he has been a spy stationed in Hong Kong.
When the ultra-secretive intelligence agency he works for abruptly hands him his walking papers, Victor Orcutt is right there to provide employment for him on the Swankerton project.

Lucifer's much anticipated work in Swankerton really doesn't get underway until the second half of The Fools in Town Are on Our Side. The first half of the book is largely about Lucifer's early life and his later tenure as an intelligence agent. Subjects which are both amazingly interesting to read about.

This book deserves a 5 star rating for a number of reasons. The narrative is extremely compelling and substantial. There's lots of action including several instances of sudden, shocking violence. As in all Ross Thomas novels, almost all of the characters are imbued with cynical attitudes that are finely honed. In fact, the degree of cynicism found in the pages of this novel is a delight to behold and is probably its most engaging characteristic.

The Fools in Town Are on Our Side is one of the author's best efforts. Highly recommended.

I just finished this, my first Ross Thomas book. It is just incredible. His writing is evocative of character, place, complexity and conflict, in as few words as possible. I found myself rereading lines in order to grasp their full impact. The underlying clear vision of the writer is impressive as well.
All with an underlying passion and self-deprecating humor. I loved every single moment of it.

It's been said that what Elmore Leonard ("Freaky Deaky," "Get Shorty," etc.) did for crime novels in urban environments, Ross Thomas did for crime novels in suburban environments. Thomas' novels aren't so much gritty as they are witty, and less about openly violent crimes as about deep corruption beneath the veneer of civilization.

"The Fools in Town Are On Our Side" is one of the best Thomas novels. It's really about three or four stories all wrapped together. The stories all happen to be about the narrator, Lucifer C. Dye. Dye was born in Montana, but spent his childhood in Shanghai, China, before and during World War II. Story No. 1 is about how he came to be raised by a Russian-born madam running Shanghai's top brothel. Story No. 2 is about how Dye came to be the youngest Sergeant Major in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, largely on the strength of his perfectly fluent Mandarin (Chinese), and his subsequent recruitment into a government intelligence program. Story No. 3 is about how he got booted out of the program. And Story No. 4 is the main story, wherein he is offered $50,000 (it was worth a lot more back in 1970 when the book was written) to help "corrupt" a town, the idea being that in order to get the townspeople to vote for a reform slate, they have to be really fed up with corruption. That requires making things far worse so people see how bad the corruption is.

Of course, Thomas does not tell the stories in that sequence. Instead, they're all mixed together, which ordinarily I find annoying, but each story is so interesting that the technique works here.

There's a little bit of violence, but for the most part, the book is really about intrigue, double-dealings, and so forth. If you've never read anything by Ross Thomas, this is a great introduction.

At eight years of age, Lucifer Dye could "shill a crap game, pimp for a whore house, speak six or seven languages, roll drunks, and hustle the rubes," but could neither read nor write.

Dye is the central character in "The Fools in Town Are on Our Side" (1970) by Ross Thomas.

It is a complex, unique, compulsively entertaining small town corruption novel.

After Dye completes his education on a "scholarship" granted by a clandestine government agency he is employed by the agency, Section Two. And, he is told, "There is no Section One."

After being unceremoniously dumped by the outfit, he is hired by Victor Orcutt to corrupt the corrupt in a Gulf Coast city.

Myriad scalawags abound, chicanery is the order of the day and abundant deceptions are trump cards, as a cast of sharp, unforgettable characters are manipulated by Dye, Orcutt and two associates.

There is never a dull moment in the absorbing narrative.

The "heroes" are tarnished and shady, and not much better than their adversaries.

The novels of Ross Thomas are fascinating and impossible to put down.

Out of print for nearly a decade, several of his works are being reissued by St. Martin's Press. Do yourself a favor---pick one up and enjoy the ride.

I read this book on the advice of someone else. As a I began reading it, I was stunned because it seemed like the author had tapped into my life! I've read a lot of self-help books before, but they all seemed to handle just one aspect my life. This book covered almost everything.

Reading this book, I was able to identify and finally put a name to many things I'd always suffered from. She calls them Nobodies, which I considered an apt description of myself.

What I really like about it, is that it's told from her perspective. She's been through all of this and she got better! It's not a book full of impersonal goals. The fact that she, herself, conquered these issues makes it seem possible that I can too.

Her style of writing is very accessible. I didn't feel overwhelmed with technical terms and definitions.

Overall, I think this is a great book and would recommend it to anyone - men or women. I read selections of it to a male friend of mine, and he, too, could completely identify with it.

Already I've started to make improvements in my life with this book as a guide.

This book is an excellent source of advice and guidance for anyone, man or woman, who has ever wondered "who am I, really? Where do I belong in the world? How do I truly feel?" The author covers a multitude of subjects, all centered around answering those questions, overcoming fear, and learning to be assertive with others. She discusses the origins of anxiety and depression, a lack of identity, difficulty with anger, communication and relationship problems, grief, letting go, and fulfilling our own desires for our lives. The central focus of these clearly-written chapters is looking inward, to discover our true selves, the part of us we have hidden from the world for fear of rejection. I recommend it highly.

This book is magnificent...I read it in one night,because I couldn't put it down. If you are feeling lonely, unsure of yourself or where you are in life right now, or even just going through a grieving process, you must buy this book. I have anxiety & depression and have read many books in this genre. After reading this one, I felt as if I was not alone in my grief. We all struggle with our own demons, and this book teaches you how to battle them and learn to be yourself. If you are a person who is always the one who has to be "sorry" or take the blame - trust me - buy this book and you will learn how to assert yourself & finally say "no" tho those who use you as their doormat.

FREE SPIRIT will help you as no other book can; believe me, I've read many a "self-help" book in my own search for relief. This book is for any woman (or man!) who seems to lose herself in her relationships, who lacks a full sense of her own identity and wants/allows others to define her, who doesn't feel entitled to happiness, who always puts the needs of others first at her own expense. It's well-written, intelligent, witty, and heartfelt. Dr. Raphael writes in a very personal tone; as one of my friends who also read the book says, it feels as if she's sitting right next to you. And since the author has been through the pain herself herself and come through with integrity on the other side, she has credibility. She doesn't dictate to you who you should be; she gives you the TOOLS to enable you to find yourself on your own. If you are in pain, wondering when the time will ever come for you to feel good about yourself, RUN to order this book. Or give it to a friend who's going through a tough time. A friend gave a copy to me; it helped me more than I can begin to describe, and at a time when I desperately needed it. I'm sure it can help you, too.

I read this book on the advice of someone else. As a I began reading it, I was stunned because it seemed like the author had tapped into my life! I've read a lot of self-help books before, but they all seemed to handle just one aspect my life. This book covered almost everything.

Reading this book, I was able to identify and finally put a name to many things I'd always suffered from. She calls them Nobodies, which I considered an apt description of myself.

What I really like about it, is that it's told from her perspective. She's been through all of this and she got better! It's not a book full of impersonal goals. The fact that she, herself, conquered these issues makes it seem possible that I can too.

Her style of writing is very accessible. I didn't feel overwhelmed with technical terms and definitions.

Overall, I think this is a great book and would recommend it to anyone - men or women. I read selections of it to a male friend of mine, and he, too, could completely identify with it.

Already I've started to make improvements in my life with this book as a guide.

My daughter, too is enthralled by Geraldine McCaughrean's retelling of Greek myths. Her selections are the same stories I was told at a similar age and which I think whetted my taste for narrative and helped turn me into a lifelong reader. McCaughrean manages to get across the failings of her human and divine characters in a way that a child can understand, so the stories have wit and moral resonance in addition to plot. This book has us racing through the bedtime routine so we can read the next story together; I don't know of a better endorsement than that!

A great introduction to Greek Mythology for adults and 4+ yearolds that flows nicely from one story to the other incorporatingrecurring characters. Well arranged but stories are kept succinct without oversimplification. Cheerful illustrations avoid the gore from cutting heads off multitudinous mythical creatures. A worthwhile book for any complete children's library!

I read this book to my 4 year-old daughter when she became interested in Greek mythology, and it quickly became her favorite. The stories are lively and interesting, the pictures colorful and engaging, and each one is just long enough to engage without becoming boring.

I bought this book for my 5 year old daughter and we have read it all in just two sittings. She is begging for me to read it again tomorrow! That's an endorsement if I ever heard one. It's lots of fun to read too because each story is only a couple of pages long and the illustrations are very nice.

Ancient Greece is part of our 6th grade Social Studies curriculum. My students looked forward to hearing a myth a day and were disappointed when I finished the book.

This book is great for short, easy-to-understand, fun, read alouds.

This atlas has the most beautiful anatomical pictures. They are precise and neat, and if you want to learn head and neuroanatomy, seeing such great drawings motivates you. This is a must have book for those who learn more and better by seeing the structures rather than just reading about them.

I have taught human gross anatomy to medical students for 3 years now. Netters is a good atlas but the Thieme atlas of anatomy series is the best I have come across. The figures focus well on specific areas of the body and give a much more information rather than just structure. It is not a replacement for an anatomy textbook such as Moore's but is an essential supplement.

This Thieme series has opened a new era! By far, this is the best atlas series available and as a medical student, I would recommend the three atlases to anyone who studies in the field of anatomy. Trust me, this is THE book you keep for life!

I just love the amazing pictures in this book. Although it is an atlas is also has some really interesting written details that you don't often get in the other atlases. I would recommend all the Thieme Atlases of Anatomy, they are truly worthwhile books to have

This series from Thieme (this is the third book) so far surpasses every other illustrated anatomy, comparisons are almost pointless. Get all three, learn them, pass your exams.