Wagner Books

J. M. Buchanan's(JMB)book is completely mistitled and out of date.Nowhere in any of Keynes's writings does Keynes ever advocate a policy of deficit finance,which is actually the brain child of Abba Lerner,a member of the American Keynesian-Neoclassical Synthesis school of economics.Lerner used the term functional finance to describe deficit finance.During a visit to America in 1944 as the representative of England's Treasury Department,Keynes totally disagreed with Lerner's approach.Keynes's approach is an advanced version of the cyclically balanced budget first laid out in clear terms to the Pharaoh by Joseph some 3,700 years ago-build up a surplus in the good years that will cover the deficits of the bad years.This is the first statement of what economists call a countercyclical fiscal policy.Keynes's additional provision is that the budget be split into two categories-one of which would be a capital budget.The government could only run deficits in the provision of capital projects in public infrastructure(building dams,reservoirs,water projects-irrigation networks,seaports,airports,public transportation projects,public schools,colleges and universities,public research laboratories,etc.,)that would pay for themselves in the long run.Nor was Keynes an advocate of tax cuts in an economic downturn except for temporarily suspending the social security tax for workers only.Keynes's major policy recommendation was the maintenance of low interest rates combined with a central bank policy of eliminating loan availability for speculative undertakings(greenmail,leveraged buyouts,hostile takeovers,margin account loans,corporate raiders,junk bonds,etc.).The correct title for JMB's book up until 1981 is"Democracy with minor to moderate deficits:The Political Legacy of the American Keynesian-Neoclassical Synthesis School".After 1981,JMB should have retitled his book as"Democracy and Catastrophic Deficits:The Political Legacy of Laffer,Reagan,and the 12 years of the Two Bush Presidencies" .The national debt when President Reagan took office stood at 925 billion dollars.As of July,2005,the national debt will have surpassed 8 trillion dollars.The Libertarian-pseudo conservative policies of tax cuts,borrowing and excessive spending of 8 years of Reagan and 12 years of the two Bush presidencies has increased our national debt by a factor of 9.JMB needs to completely rewrite his book.First,he needs to incorporate the theoretical foundations of the story of Joseph and the Pharaoh from the Old Testament.He will probably need to purchase a bible in order to correctly cite verse and page.Second,he needs to obtain a copy of Keynes's General Theory and read what Keynes actually wrote and not what Henry Hazlitt claims what Keynes meant in his 1959 "Failure of the 'New Economics'".

Comprehensive analysis of the political and economic effects of Keynesianism from a public choice perspective. This is an impressive look at the lasting changes in the economic order since Keynes' ideas were adopted by politicians and influential economists alike.

The authors, James M. Buchanan and Richard E. Wagner, offer two main points of criticism of the Keynesian prescription of deficit spending during recession. They first expose the internal inconsistency of Keynesianism that, if it were true, during an economic recession with slack resources, public spending increases could simply be financed by the creation of money rather than the issuance of interest-bearing debt (pp. 34-35).

More important, however, is the authors' public-choice criticism of Keynesianism. The Keynesian doctrine of deficit spending provided the academic excuse for elected representatives to spend without taxing, thus removing the self-imposed discipline of balanced budgets that had existed prior to the adoption of Keynesian thinking (p. 4): "The legacy or heritage of Lord Keynes is the putative intellectual legitimacy provided to the natural and predictable political biases toward deficit spending, inflation, and the growth of government" (p. 26).

Keynesianism might perhaps work under a system of benevolent dictatorship, but not in a democratic setting with citizens who are both taxpayers and beneficiaries of public services, professional politicians, political parties and government bureaucracy (pp. 79-80). "Political decisions in the United States are made by elected politicians, who respond to the desires of voters and the ensconced bureaucracy. There is no center of power where an enlightened few can effectively isolate themselves from constituency pressures" (p. 98).

Elected public officials display a bias towards spending public funds on projects that yield tangible benefits to their constituents, and towards not encumbering them with a tax bill to pay for those projects. "The pre-Keynesian norm of budget balance served to constrain spending proclivities so as to keep governmental outlays roughly within the revenue limits generated by taxes. The Keynesian destruction of this norm, without an adequate replacement, effectively removed the constraint. Predictably, politicians responded by increasing spending more than tax revenues, by creating budget deficits as a normal course of events" (pp. 95-96).

Buchanan considers the argument of the book that in a democratic setting there is a bias towards deficit finance "perhaps the single most persuasive application of the elementary theory of public choice" (p. xv). Indeed, the reform proposals introduced, particularly the constitutional balanced budget amendment, are to be thought of as "rules...designed to constrain the short-run expedient behavior of politicians" (p. 9).

This is chronologically the first publication on public debt finance in the Collected Works series where Buchanan has proposed a constitutional balanced budget requirement (pp. 166, 183-184, 187-188). Buchanan, more than anyone else, offers the most persuasive argument for such a requirement, and thus this volume is still worthwhile. But volume 14 in the series (Debt and Taxes) offers a richer variety of papers by Buchanan on the subject of public debt finance, including the constitutional balanced budget amendment.

A female Grendel is the last of her clan. The rest of them committed suicide when the Grendel ruler was assassinated by his lover, as they had failed in their duty.

Susan, however, took and different path, and went looking for the mightiest and incorruptible Paladin, the Grendel Prime.

The various Grendel states have degenerated, so plenty of problems just staying alive to try and start bringing some order back to things.

Similar to a comic book read, the action moves along a bit like a screenplay and doesn't delve too deep, but is enjoyable nonetheless. Expands the Grendel and Grendel Prime mythos with a decent backstory (and origin) and rewards those who admire honor, loyalty and warrior ideals. This is also a great book for those who can't get enough of the Grendel Prime character.

This book is for the fan who has followed Grendel from the early eighties. The story retells the original story of Susan, a disenchanted Grendel in search of her redemption in the form of Grendel Prime. The book expands a little on the Grendel story line. In this respect it makes is a good companion piece to the fans of the comic book line. As a stand alone story the book does well until the end where you are left hanging. Hopefully more of the stories will be presented in this genre. I have enjoyed the novelizations of some of the comic lines, and to some this may be a "legitimate" way to enjoy comic books. Additionally, the price is not all that bad. As a trade paperback it is far less than a hardcover, and with the Wagner artwork the price is easily justified.

This is a great read for a novice tree grower!

There is a fair amount of information if you mostly want to grow certain nut trees (pecan, walnuts, hazelnuts) and citrus. I would have liked to see a lot more information on less common nut varieties (e.g., chestnuts, pine nuts, etc.) And there was little to no information on apple, pear, plum, etc. There are better books that cover fruit in general, and there are citrus specialty books if that's your main interest.

This is a good book for those wanting very basic information on planting, propagating, caring for, & harvesting the fruit of the trees. More detailed information is given on citrus & exotic fruits as well as on a few nut varieties.

Several gadgets that can be used to make caring for the tree easier are also listed along with places to get them. There is also a small but delicious recipe section as well as planting & apple-tasting record templates.

There is great chart that explains how to organically fix or prevent many diseases & pests that can injure your trees. Another chart lists zones, chill hours, height, pollinator & susceptibilities for about 16 trees.

A bibliography & many associations where you can find information on growing specific trees are also included. Information on where to buy trees is as well as a list of tree museums is a nice bonus.

I feel this book portrays through the use of historical postcard type pictures an era of days gone by just like the title of the book says from Harley Davidson's birth in 1903-1965. Makes an excellent collectible for future generations to enjoy.

That Hog lover in your life will be delighted by this classy collection of American Iron photographs. & these are beautiful, historic photos from as far back as 1903. Because the bikes speak for their own beauty, the viewer is pulled back just enough to allow for appreciation of the photographs, too, presented as in a gallery with lots of space around them. Wagner respects them & the tales they tell enough to save his commentary for the final pages of the book. Harley Davidson Lore looks & feels great inside & out. Wash your hands before you pick it up.

Bob Rixon

Was very disappointed with this book. Before writing this review I read a review of the other book in this series titled "Harley-Davidson Lore: 1966 to Present". That review is completely applicable to this book also. So instead of writing the same message in my own words I took the liberty of taking a little cut and paste action.

"I looked forward to reading this book to learn about H-D tradition, company exploits, and product development. My reason for writing this review is to let others with similar interests know that this book offers very little on those subjects.

What Herbert Wagner has done is to merely compile a set of photographs of such things as H-D advertisements, products, and events, and annotate them in as spartan a manner as you could possibly imagine. This book borders on being completely uninformative!

Just as dissapointing is the format that was chosen by the author and his publisher. The beginning of the book, comprising the vast majority of the pages, contains photos without text. The end of the book is a series of pages that duplicate, in thumbnail sized images, all of the photos found in the beginning of the book. Next to each of these miniature images you will find a few words of descriptive text. Interestingly, the text is so small that it challenges people (even those with eagle-like vision) to read without squinting or without reaching for reading glasses."

Couldn't agree more. Adding that also the pictures in the body of the book are way too small. Maybe 25% of the page is used for a picture, the rest is blank. Either they should have selected a larger page size (if the 25% is important) or they should have used a larger portion for the picture.

It's not very difficult to decide if you should buy this book or not. Because it all depends on how familiar you are with, and your personal opinion about, Robert Anton Wilson.

If you haven't heard about him before, if you don't have any interest in learning more about him, his background, what he's written and why; then don't bother buying An Insider's Guide to Robert Anton Wilson. According to the back of the book it doesn't matter if you're new to the world of Wilson or if you're already a devoted reader; the book is in everybody's interest since he's such a remarkable author.

And yes, that's true, Wilson has lived a fascinating life, written numerous books, been inspired by everything from Timothy Leary to Aleister Crowley, and there are fans of his in all ages all over the world. However, the book is still mainly for those already familiar with him, and who has read his books and appreciate what he has to say and his style of writing. The book contains interviews with Wilson, a lexicon related to him and his world, and analyses of his work. Sure, it's well-written, and all fans of Wilson will appreciate it, I guarantee it. However, what's the point with all the pictures at the end of it? They're all of lousy quality, and might as well have been excluded.

But if you haven't read Wilson then I cannot recommend this book, because its content can best be understood if you know him already. Here and there some interesting facts can be found even for the everyday reader, but to truly appreciate it you better know your Wilson before purchasing it.

However, if you've never heard of him or don't have any interest in getting to know him, then please spend your hard-earned money on a different book than this.

This book, _An Insider's Guide To Robert Anton Wilson_ may yield much to both Initiates and the Hopelessly Befuddled (I belong to both groups, somehow)and nearly everyone in-between who has any interest in Robert Anton Wilson at all, at all. But Caveat Lector: This seems like quite the avant work. Not that it's filled with specialized jargon or postmodern blitherscabble. (The words "hegemony" or "transgressive" don't show in the text, that I remember.) On the contrary, the prose seems lapidary to me. The avant-ness resides elsewhere. The Author, Eric Wagner, has pulled off a difficult writing stunt I've never seen before: he writes an entire work of literary criticism in E-Prime, or English without any of the forms of "be" in it (am, is are, was were, be), thereby putting into play an epistemological-ontological gambit first proposed by the founder of General Semantics, Alfred Korzybski, and fleshed out by his student D. David Bourland. One of the main effects of using this hygenic language game: the author's assertions appear more clearly to emanate from his own nervous system; he makes things exceedingly difficult for himself in that he can't make any omniscient-sounding claims to Ultimate Truth or True Being or I Have THE Main Line On My Subject. Rather, E-Prime imposes a constraint on claims made in sentences that might violate what we learned in the 20th century about the nature of "reality." That is, E-Prime seems more in keeping with most of the interpretations of the Schrodinger's Wave Equation (i.e., the quantum theory), with Godel's Incompleteness Theorem in math, with Gestalt Psychology and later models of perception and the human nervous system, with the relativity of cultural values found in Anthropology, the relativity of neuroscience (everyone resides in their own "reality tunnel"), and the philosophy of Phenomenology, to name but a few of the epistemic gems in our cultural inheritance from the explosion of knowledge in the 20th century. E-Prime makes the foisting of a Belief System (BS)almost impossible for a writer. Somehow Wagner pulled it off. Damn if he didn't write the whole thing in E-Prime! (If you don't think that's difficult, try writing a letter to a friend telling them why some political position seems more desirable than another.)

If you've never heard of some of these highfalutin' epistemologies, no matter: reading the book and paying attention to the effects of the POV and lingering necessary uncertainty behind the prose might yield some interesting effects. Frankly, it blew my mind!

Wagner clearly has great admiration for his subject, and he thinks a book of literary criticism ought to seem able to come right out and make that clear, without the olde pretense of scholarly "objectivity." In this the book seems avant also. But he hasn't written a "fanboy" book, either. In addition to two interviews with Wilson, a Preface/Introduction/Overture by RAW himself, and lots of ludic Joycean and "insider" jokes, I loved two extremely insightful pieces of Wilson scholarship, "Appendix Samekh:Illuminatus!", which told me many things about the structure of one of the greatest conspiracy theory novels ever written, and one I've quite frankly probably read too many times, even though it's 805 pages. And here Wagner sheds light on a deep structure in the dreaded _Illuminatus! Trilogy_ , a structure I'd never guessed was so intricate; the other section of the book that I found particularly stimulating - and one in which many Joyceans would no doubt enjoy also - was Wagner's elucidation of "Joyce's Influence on (Wilson's) _Masks of the Illuminati_", a delightful and learned essay that demonstrates Wilson as a writer heavily influenced by the labyrinthine, multi-vocal cubist prose of the greatest Modernist (and Postmodernist!) writer of the 20th century.

The casual reader will learn a great deal about the dizzying scope of Wilson's influences, the use of occult knowledge, and the cosmic hilarity and optimism that resides at the heart of Robert Anton Wilson's life and work. Wagner has written, as far as I know, the first critical about RAW, and we hope many others will follow with their own views on this almost absurdly mutifaceted writer.

I would have to describe this book as a (very) mixed bag. It is very frustrating and yet, at the same time, there is definitely enough "good stuff" in it to make it worthwhile reading even for the seasoned Robert Anton Wilson fan (in my case about 27 years seasoned).

On the down side, there are an incredible number of typos, grammatical errors, and other mistakes. Although Wilson always advised people to avoid absolutes, I must say that I was absolutely astounded. The quantity of errors would be extemely high for your average Internet post, let alone a book from a reasonably established publisher such as New Falcon. I found it hard to get through a single page without finding at least one error of one sort or another and often more than one, and I wasn't really looking that hard.

It is doubly amazing to find such a plethora of errors in a book by a poet who has also worked as a computer programmer, a technical writer, and a teacher of English! You might imagine that a poet would be even more sensitive to each word and to punctuation than even an accomplished prose writer. And programmers sweat every single character when they're coding, which, again, might lead one to expect a certain level of attention to detail. But, no, in this case the universe chooses to surprise us.

I should note that the sections at the beginning of the book which are written by Wilson himself are noticeably free of the errors which are endemic throughout the rest of the work.

I find it ironic that a product this slipshod could come from a publisher whose overriding emphasis could be described as trying to enable its readers to achieve states of higher human functioning!

Some errors include:

The German phrase "Ewige Blumenkraft!" which means "Eternal Flowerpower" (and is translated as such by Wilson in the Preface) comes, in the lexicon, to be "Hail Flowerpower!" (Page 65.)

The character Mao Tsu-Hsi sometimes becomes Mao Tu Tsi. (E.g., page 82.)

Likewise Sufi writer Idries Shah becomes Idris Shah and also is listed as still being alive although he died in 1996. (Page 103.)

"H.M., S.H." (as in "Hagbard Celine, H.M., S.H.") becomes "S.H., H.M." Perhaps Eric has a lower opinion of Hagbard than many of the rest of us and therefore puts the S.H. first. ("H.M., S.H." comes from a story in Camden Benares' hilarious Zen Without Zen Masters and stands for "Holy Man, S*** Head".)(Page 100.)

There is an entry for one of Wilson's characters "Stella. Or, as she sometimes calls herself, Stella Only." But no mention is made of her full name as given in the Illuminatus! trilogy, Stella Maris: "Her name is Stella. Stella Maris. Black star of the sea." The name Stella Maris relates both to Catholic tradition and to a D.W. Griffith movie in which Mary Pickford plays two different characters, facts which might have been of interest to fans of Wilson. (Page 104.)

The entry for "Swift, Jonathan" somehow gets alphabetized between "Taming of the Shrew (The)" and "Tantra." The entry on Swift also refers to a book by Wilson called Nature's Law. Except that he never wrote such a book, although he did write both Nature's God and Natural Law. (Page 106.)

Speaking of Nature's God, in the bibliography it gets a 1986 edition published by Loompanics Unlimited, which is five years before it was actually published and it was never published by that particular company. Apparently Wagner is again confusing it with the book Natural Law. (Page 236.)

The definition of tantra reffered to above states that it involves "prolonging the sexual act to achieve radically altered states of conscience." While that well may be sometimes an effect of the practice, I don't think that is quite what most are aiming for. (Page 106, again.)

The definition of tantra is followed immediately by a definition of the tarot deck, which is said to be "A collection of cards used for mediation and fortune telling, etc." Yes, of course. That is how labor and management usually work out their disputes isn't it? It would be cool I grant you, and might work better than much that they do now. But still, you may be sure, this is not what the author intended. (Yes, believe it or not, yet again page 106.)

(If nothing else, these last few examples make it clear why spellchecking your work is no substitute for proofreading it!)

John Lilly's famous tome Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer becomes Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Metacomputer. (Page 164.)

H.L. Mencken becomes H.L. Menken, the Historical Illuminatus Chronicles become the Historical Illuminati Chronicles, County Kerry in Ireland becomes, apparently, its own country, Country Kerry, and so forth.

Lest I seem to be nitpicking, let me just say that while I could overlook two or three -- or even a dozen -- errors like these, the sheer quantity of them (and I have barely scratched the surface here) simply becomes stupefying after awhile. Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I tend to like my reference works to actually be more or less correct!

Another issue is that sometimes the selection (or exclusion) of items in the lexicon, and the amount of text devoted to them, seem arbitrary. For example, Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Illuminati, a secret society which much of Wilson's work revolves around, gets only eight lines of text, but the Faulkner inspired "Yoknapatawpha diet," essentially irrelevant to Wilson's writing, gets 27 lines.

The book also seems in places very repetitive. One reviewer called it "severely repetitive"! In some cases this works, in that you really absorb the point or information in question, but often it just seems a waste of space that could have been better used for other material (such as, perhaps, elaborating on the parallels between the structure of Illuminatus! and D.W. Griffith's Intolerance, a connection which Wagner mentions in passing, but never pursues further).

Then there are textual analyses carried almost to the point of absurdity. One hopes that this overinterpretation is being done intentionally and for humorous effect, but I really don't think so.

A wise man once wrote, "[W]e are seeing what we believe nearly all the time and only occasionally seeing what we can't believe." But An Insider's Guide to Robert Anton Wilson is an exception to that rule. You'll see what you can't believe a whole lot more than occasionally.

As a previous reviewer here notes, this book is written in E-Prime, i.e. English prime (English without the "is" of identity), as were some of Wilson's own works. However, perhaps it would have been better had Mr. Wagner paid more attention to his E and less to his E-Prime.

Still, one cannot deny than Mr. Wagner, despite his egregious grammatical shortcomings and other lapses, is very knowledgeable and well read in many areas, and has many interesting and sometimes surprising things to say about the works of Robert Anton Wilson.

And, certainly, whatever my reservations about the book, I am glad that someone, namely Eric Wagner, took the time and effort to write a guide to Bob's oeuvre.

However, this is a book only for the diehard -- and very forgiving! -- Wilson fan. It is most certainly an "Insider's Guide to Robert Anton Wilson" and not an "Introduction to Robert Anton Wilson"!

The best introduction to the man and his work, in my opinion, is either Cosmic Trigger: Final Secret of the Illuminati (his autobiography) or his fictional Illuminatus! trilogy written with Robert J. Shea.

I'm guesing the other two reviewers are die hard judge dredd fans which is fine of course, to each his own - for someone like me who is brand new to dredd however I wouldn't recommend this book.... while it seems like there's a lot of potential for good stories here, each story in this book is way, way too short - the action's practically over before it starts, very little in the way of in depth character development... I guess I compare any graphic novel I read to the all time greats in that genre (Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, The Killing Joke, Sandman, Preacher, Kingdom Come, et cetera ) - in comparison this particular book falls waaaayyyyy short.

I'm a little confused as to why DC hasn't simply done a series of comprehensive reprints of Judge Dredd, as they have with the other 2000 AD properties. Oh well, you take what you can get.

I'm not an expert on Dredd, but I do have a little experience with the character (outside the terrible Stallone movie), and this volume is a perfect intro to Dredd and his world. The violence, the snarky humor, the break-neck plots, it's all here, as Dredd battles the vile Judge Death, who has decided all living things break the law, and so must be punished by Death. Dredd also gets to police "The First Lunar Olympics", a particularly amusing bit of satire, as atheletes are scanned for drugs AND bionic enhancements beyond the permitted 20%. The image of a boarder falling off the ramp and onto the pavement at 200+ mph is amusing in its gore. Another brilliant satire is "The Oxygen Board", as a group of crooks look like they've gotten away with the perfect robbery on the moon, until one is informed his oxygen bill is late. It's refreshing to read stories that pack a wallop in about 10 pages or so, particularly in this day of "decompressed" plots running multiple issues so common in comics.

While John Wagner and Alan Grant's stories are a hoot, the real attraction of this particular collection is the artwork of Brian Bolland (maybe it should have been called "Judge Dredd: The Bolland Collection"). His pencils are some of the most detailed and realistic around. Every grostesque fight, bizarre alien, and elaborate spaceship is a joy to behold. Because Bolland has become almost exclusively a cover artist, this collection is that much more of a gem.

While I understand the more patchwork approach to Dredd DC has taken (there's a lot of material, some of it more in demand than others), I hope DC does get around to being more comprehensive. But if not, great collections like this will do nicely.

I'm very thankful for DC/2000AD's reprint series, as it's about time these 2000AD classics were made newly available here in the States. JUDGE DREDD: DREDD VS. DEATH collects material written by Alan Grant & John Wagner, and illustrated by the incomparable Brian Bolland. About half of this collection consists of stories featuring Judge Death, perhaps the greatest Dredd villain of all time. He's an other-dimensional Judge who has determind that life is a crime - so everyone must die! The stories begin with his arrival in Mega-City 1 and proceed to his resurrection by the remaining 3 Dark Judges. The remainder of the book consists of one-shot stories that are much more light-hearted in tone; some, in fact, are quite funny. Grant and Wagner get a thumbs-up for the writing. As for Bolland, these issues of 2000AD established his reputation as one of the greatest illustrators in comics. For someone who works in fine-line, his style is very photo-realistic, giving Dredd's universe more depth and shadow. In fact, I first read these stories when I was 12 or so, and some of the images from the Judge Death tales still creep me out to this day. These Dredd stories are the best ever, so even if you're not a fan, I say to check them out.

ISBN: 8425217180 is an exclusively black & white, concise and copiously illustrated paperback survey of 86 major works published in 1997 by Gustavo Gili (GG) of Barcelona in English and Spanish side by side on 256 pages, as a 4th edition. A short introductory part on several pages is followed by the main review part presenting each shortly described project in a combination of excellent B&W photos, plans, sections, elevations, hard line presentation drawings, sketches, etc. The book is ended with a biography, writings, list of works, etc. on several pages. Most of hundreds of only B&W illustrations are technical, but all (incl. B&W photos) are of a good quality, well balanced, crisp and legible. Like all from the Works and Projects series, it is solid among architectural monographs, but slightly smaller than the Studio Paperback series published by Birkhäuser Verlag under ISBN: 37643* (Basel)/08176* (Boston) or Artemis Verlag under ISBN: 37608* (Zürich)/18740* (London).

ISBN: 8425217180 is an exclusively black & white, concise and copiously illustrated paperback survey of 86 major works published in 1997 by Gustavo Gili (GG) of Barcelona in English and Spanish side by side on 256 pages, as a 4th edition. A short introductory part on several pages is followed by the main review part presenting each shortly described project in a combination of excellent B&W photos, plans, sections, elevations, hard line presentation drawings, sketches, etc. The book is ended with a biography, writings, list of works, etc. on several pages. Most of hundreds of only B&W illustrations are technical, but all (incl. B&W photos) are of a good quality, well balanced, crisp and legible. Like all from the Works and Projects series, it is solid among architectural monographs, but slightly smaller than the Studio Paperback series published by Birkhäuser Verlag under ISBN: 37643* (Basel)/08176* (Boston) or Artemis Verlag under ISBN: 37608* (Zürich)/18740* (London).

The book gives an overview on Botta's works in the past, present and it lists some projects with their drawings and models that are proposed to be done in the future. The book is sufficient, in my opinion, to provide a basic understanding of Botta's philosophies and the way he handles architecture.

almost every information given in the book is given in three different languages. Hence, the book might be useful to some of those who don't use English.

There is a small gallery at the end of the book that illustrates some of the design work that Botta did outside architecture like furniture, vases, among others. the collection is informative. However, I wished I found a collection with larger photos and more details.

So, in general, I rate the book as a good reference and overview on Botta's works, especially architectural ones.

I am very much a Bible-believing Christian. If you want to introduce me to a new concept, then be prepared to give me the Word of God to back up what you're saying. I have read many books on deliverance and inner healing (emotional healing) ministry, but this one immediately became one of my favorites. What is presented in this book is absolutely amazing! EVERY minister who desires to operate in the area of inner healing and deliverance NEEDS to read this book! It will help them get to the root of the problem, and allow the Holy Spirit to minister to the emotional wounds. God's Word speaks very clearly about the ministry of emotional healing...

Luke 4:18, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised."

But unfortunately, many Christians today have little or no clue as to how to receive inner healing. This book does a phenomenal job at explaining how the Holy Spirit wants to take us back to the wound, and then bring us into tremendous healing from that wound. It is backed with scripture, and the author does a fine job at breaking down the process.

When doing deliverance ministry, it is important to be prepared to minister in four areas:
- Break up legal grounds (repentance, renouncing curses, etc.)
- Tear down strongholds (through studying and meditating on the Word of God)
- Minister to inner wounds (emotional healing play a vital role in a person's freedom)
- Cast out the demons

When a minister casts out demons, but fails to clean up the things which are giving the demons access the person, then there are going to be cases where the demons come back and their newfound freedom is quickly lost. But when the things which are letting the demons in are dealt with, true and lasting freedom can be established. That should be the goal of every minister operating in the area of deliverance and spiritual warfare.

If you are in the ministry, or somebody who has been wounded or suffers from dysfunctional emotions, then this book is for you. I HIGHLY recommend it!

I honestly cannot give this book a higher recommendation!

... it is a complete dogs breakfast.
I suggest you read the Holy Bible for at least 15 minutes everyday.

The outstanding fact I enjoyed about this book is the well applied scripture in context and cross referenced. This is not a "feel good" book, it is a book directing you to grasp the power and wisdom found in THE BOOK.

Dale, well done!

Whereas Wagner's premise is sound, prayer in general and its need in the Christian believer's life, his evidential and biblical support are highly lacking. As the book introduces itself and Wagner to the reader, one finds that this book is primarily a synopsis of the first five books in this series. Only two areas are new to the reader, and Wanger does not spend much time on either one. The examples Wagner uses in the book have no credible witnesses outside of themselves, and in some cases one person uses another to validate their story, and then the second person uses the first person to validate their story. Wagner makes three very obvious biblical blunders by using scripture out of context. In one instance he misses the entire point of the biblical reference he cites. This book does contain sound perspectives on the necessity of prayer in the church body as a whole, and also gives many fine examples of how important prayer is for the Christian believer. However, the overall lack of sound biblical proof and background evidence causes this book to lack the punch Wagner would hope for in a book of this importance.

"Praying with Power" is definitely a powerful book. It is full of life changing ideas on how to pray, who to pray for, what to pray for, where to pray etc. The church that I belong to prays but I know that we can do better. Mr. Wagner has written an excellent book under the guidance of the Holy Ghost!

Many have come to realize that prayer when whole-heartedly mobilized can affect every aspect of life. As you complete reading each testimony in this book, you can't help realizing the multitudes that are still living under the shadow of malevolent manipulation. Thank God, heaven has hope for such victims. God has his own way of changing situations by releasing a weight of burden and compassion upon his people's heart. This change is being activated in the season of intercession which we are now living.

Intercessory prayers are meant to change the speed of prayer from mediocrity to offensive. The overall mission is to seek wholesome freedom by dislodging stubborn "habitants" from their illegal occupancy in our communities. Have you seen a city lurched from snail pace to fast expanding growth? Have you witnessed the countenance of a community being gloriously transformed? This book gives you an insight. In it, there are empirical evidences revealing prayer has altered the characteristic of cities, towns or communities.

However some of the experiences related in this book can be quite a shocking truth especially to those who are not aware of the presence of spiritual vestibules through which the emissaries of darkness can gain legal entrance. Nevertheless, it was the wonderful endings that have given me joyful hope.

I have come to know that spiritual enslavement can be aborted without consent. Prayer can release life-changing penetration even in the darkest corners of life.

Peter's research have also made me discovered the need for intelligent prayer. It is basically made up of three important underpinnings - ability to discern the Voice of God, reliable info. materials and prayer principles. However prayer itself is a journey of exploitation. Prayer cannot be understood from theological perspective, it has to be discovered through the rugged path of experience.

Through this book I have also realized that we must not neglect quality character. Testimonies often major on glorious results but hardly on the character of persistency that is most needed in prevailing prayer. If impatience overrides persistency, this is one of the reasons why prayer becomes artificial.

This book is easily crowned as the best among all the prayer series. Peter has adopted a simplicity style of words in order to relate God's heart to his readers. Although the subject on the power of prayer emblazoned most of the chapters, the author has brought a far more important message across to us, that is God still wants to share his breakthrough plans with man. The conclusive victory in the testimonies shared in this book reinforces the fact that prayer is actually an intimate collaboration between God and His people.

How wonderful! "Praying with Power" stretches the ability of man to believe in almost anything in the realm of the faith and obedience in which God can use to defy the impossible affairs of man.

Concise collection of texts treating all aspects of Renewable Energy in a grown up manner. Valuable as a starter's information source but also for experts. Covers all the aspects of renewable energy sources and many ways to transform one form of energy to another.

Concise collection of texts treating all aspects of Renewable Energy in a grown up manner. Valuable as a starter's information source but also for experts. Covers all the aspects of renewable energy sources and many ways to transform one form of energy to another. Spans from biomass, biogas, solar collectors, solar cells to fuel cell cogeneration.

Concise collection of texts treating all aspects of Renewable Energy in a grown up manner. Valuable as a starter's information source but also for experts.