Suicide Books

Beatrice Sparks is well known for publishing "true" stories based on teenage tragedies.....but the real story is that Ms. Sparks writes these books herself. Seldom are they even based on a true story.

It's fiction. All her books are fiction. Don't be fooled. Her books are simply a way for her to spew her propaganda under the "it could happen to you" guise.

Don't waste your time reading this tripe.

When I first began to read this book I wasn't really into it. THen when I get farther into the book I began to like it more. This book has showed me someways how life can get when you have family problems and bad friends. Jay had Debbie who got him into stealing for her.She overdozed on pills. Even thought these are to help you, if you take them to much it can hurt you heath. Jays dad finally cought him and sent him to a kids Jail where he met Pete. Now this is where it got intresting for me. When Pete showed Jay that he could levitate coins I got very intrested. I automaticlly new then that Jay was going to get into witch craft. Which is bad and good in my opinion. In someways this has helped me in my own life. this book is sort-of like me, he has family problems, girlfriends problems and everthing. I belive this book is TOTALLY! awesome. It's entertaining and it's just a good book for people to read. It can help some people mabye over come their own problems. This book is very good for a teen. It talks about getting your first car which every teenager can't wait for! I belive this book in impowering for alot of kids and can teach them what not to do and what can happen when you get in with the wrong group and wrong girlfriend. I was so dissapointed when I read he killt himself. This book is awesome and I'm glad I readit

I agree it was very entertaining when I was 12. I was also under the impression that it was somewhat true and it's very disappointing that a woman would be in such denial about her own lack of parenting skills that she'd go out of her way to make it look like some evil forces made her son kill himself.
Maybe if she was less delusional and more responsible, her son wouldn't have killed himself.
Ultimately, read it if you want, but please don't perpetuate the lie by actually paying for it.

I remember when i first started reading this book, i couldn't get my hands off of it. it is kind of sad knowing that some of the teenagers are troubled like Jay.when people like Jay are gullible enough to fall in the hands of drugs, witchcraft, satanism, and voodo, it just shows that his parents probably didn't give him the proper guidance or attention he needed to do the right things. He wants to explore more of what life has to offer like mental challenges as in E.S.P (extrasensory perception). Many times it can also be influences by friends or family. As is Jays case it was his two best friends. Unfortunately they both die and Jay is left on the world on his own. So he does even crazier things like perform weird satanic ceremonies which include drinking the blood from cows. After all these incidents are over, there is this demon presence that troubled Jay for a good while. He would follow him everywhere. And it's a very strong coincidence that he and his friends all died by their right temples. And when Jay dies he leaves a note for his parents telling them how he couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't take how the demon tormented him and how he had to be on his own because he really liked his friends.

Unlike Beatrice Sparks, I actually have earned a Ph.D. (in English and American Literature). During my years as a school and school district administrator, I don't know how many of Sparks' books I've authorized the purchase of, upon the request of my district's English teachers. A few years ago, I was sitting in my office and picked up a copy of "Jay's Journal." I read it when I was a kid (not surprisingly, I was a very early and precocious reader). During the ensuing years, I not only had grown up, but I actually had learned about Satanic rituals and practices not in any esoteric way, but simply as a member of several Catholic Yahoo Groups and reading genuine scholarly journals

Consequently, I did an Internet search, compiled material that I e-mailed to ALL my teachers along with a directive to inform their students Sparks' books were fiction. I couldn't make the books I had ordered disappear, but I could do something to be true to what I consider the first percept of good teaching, which is to put the kids first and be as honest as possible at all times. Incidentally, there has been no evidence that Beatrice Sparks is, in fact, a licensed mental health professional -- and believe me, I knew where to look.

When "Jay's" brother, Scott Barrett, offered his book for sale in the spring of 2006, I ordered a copy, sent him a check for $15 -- and only received an e-mail stating that there would be a delay in getting my copy. I never did, unfortunately. It would have made a terrific article for "The English Journal" and several other publications for teachers of English (and all teachers of adolescents), school counselors, school psychologists and licensed mental health professionals in general.

What Beatrice Sparks did to the Barrett family is unconscionable. If she has a license to lose -- and I have found no evidence that she is a licensed mental health professional in Utah or any other state -- she more than deserves to lose it.

I loved the story itself & thought it was a good scary ghost story/mystery. However, I could not stand the writing style! It was full of redundant dialog - I was basically reading the same thing over & over.

I also thought the ending was a bit cheezy...

This was the 1st bk. I've read by Straub & if the others are written the same way I'll pass.

Too many storylines--this book could have easily been 3 separate books. Not only were there too many storylines, they didn't mesh. Wife/mother commits suicide. Nobody cares, and it doesn't matter to the plot anyway. There are lots more examples like that in this book. And the ending is incredibly disappointing. Nothing happens, nothing is wrapped up. It just....ends. A total snoozer. 2 stars because I barely managed kto made it to the end of the book.

As others have mentioned, this book features an interesting plot, with motifs of grief and denial versus belief in the supernatural. Straub writes an engrossing book dealing with a boy's disappearance shortly after his mother's suicide (in the context of a pedophilic serial killer's targeting of teenage boys) and his family's response to these events. The story is told out of chronological order and with changing viewpoints, which make the reading experience more interesting.

My main issue with the book was the self-conscious writing style, which perhaps was intentional, but I did not find enjoyable. The most egregious offender was the dialect Straub utilized for the teenage characters. He tried to be authentic, mainly by using the word 'yo' a lot, but it read a lot more like how adults think teenagers talk than how teenagers actually talk. Mark, the teenage character's emails are written in text-message style to the nth degree, which is equally annoying. The 'cool' dialect of the two teenage characters is in strange juxtaposition to their behavior; they act more like boyfriends (in the non-platonic sense) than friends. Tim Underhill's journal entries have a similar self-conscious quality -- they did not seem like journal entries, which made them somewhat distracting.

Lost Boy, Lost Girl was enjoyable, but in my opinion fell far short of Ghost Story, one of Straub's other notable works. I feel that the book would have benefitted from taking more time to explore some of the plot points and issues. After a long buildup, the book ended relatively quickly. Since the narrator/protagonist's reliability is questionable, further exploration of these ideas would have been beneficial.

"Lost Boy, Lost Girl" is the first novel I've read from Peter Straub. Even if it's a readable story it is also quite disappointing.
Mr. Straub uses a "writing formula" that owes much to Stephen King's own style. He repeatedly refers to daily-life products by their ™ names as to anchor the text to reality before launching the reader into supernatural territory. Yet Mr. King uses this resource subtly where Mr. Straub seems to be throwing pebbles to the pond.

The other questionable issue is the author's ambiguity. Is this a ghost story? Is this a haunted house story? Is this a serial killer story?
IMHO it is everything and nothing, resenting the whole book structure.

The story starts with novelist Tim Underhill going back to his home town to attend his sister-in-law funeral. Then things start to turn more complex. His nephew disappears. His brother, even if he despises and envies Tim, calls him for support.
Tim starts a one-man investigation and all the above mentioned alternatives deploy.
There IS a serial killer. There IS a spooky house. There ARE supernatural occurrences.
Yet they do not blend in a coherent story as if each thread tries to capture the reader's attention excluding the others.

Not good enough, still I'll give a try to another book from Mr. Straub before deciding if his style is not my cup of tea.
Reviewed by Max Yofre.

This is my first Straub book, after enjoying his two partnerships with Stephen King. This book has a slower, plodding pace than I usually enjoy, with relatively few juicy pieces of insite or language constructions that can still make slow, plodding books enjoyable to read. The story itself wasn't bad -- kept me turning the pages. But when I suddenly realized I was still in the "middle" of the story, but with only 25 pages to read, I started to get uneasy. Sure enough, the book ends about how my little sister could've written it if she had a weekend deadline and no imagination. It just suddenly gets wrapped up. I kept waiting for the huge "AHA!" twist or freaky chase scene or the part where the hero is either almost murdered or revealed to be the murderer himself...alas, it actually ended like a newspaper article. This was lame. Way lame.

I recently lost my beloved pet of 15 years and was looking for words of hope and comfort that one day I will get to see him again. I did not get that from this book. It was brief and I felt like I was reading a children's book. I received more comfort and hope from the paragraph I received about the Rainbow Bridge from the SPCA. I was very disappointed that the book was so short with very little detail. Normally Sylvia describes the afterlife and the ornate buildings and duties and way of life in great detail, so my expectations were high. I read this book cover to cover in about 5 minutes and came away angry that I wasted my money. I realize that afterlife may be a fantasy but in times of mourning, you are searching for anything that brings comfort and this book fell extremely short in that area.

Although this is one of the most "simple" books I own, I enjoy it so much that I bought several more copies. I give them away to special friends who I believe will "understand" the theme.

This one is a "keeper" for me.

This is a delightful book to read to children! Highly recommend Sylvia's book--"A Must Read".

This was a wonderful book. I bought it for my daughter. We just had to put down our dog, that we had for over 13yrs. My daughter was in so much pain, and feeling guilty, because we had to put her down. This really helped her understand when our pets need to leave us. Thank you so much for having a book about this subject. It really helps anyone who has lost a pet.

I AM ALSO A SYLVIA BROWN FAN, AND AN ANIMAL LOVER. AFTER READING THE REVIEWS OF THIS BOOK I DECIDED NOT TO BUY IT.
IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A GREAT BOOK AND AFTER LIFE READ KIM SHERIDANS BOOK ANIMALS IN THE AFTER LIFE, IT IS EXCELLENT.

How can I give this novel five stars when I gave Oates' brilliant The Gravedigger's Daughter five stars? The Falls is a fine, passionate, absorbing, and dark novel but it does not rise to the intense literary level of The Gravedigger's Daughter.

The Falls is basically the story of Ariah Burnaby, nee Littrell, entwined with a fictional early "history" of the Love Canal legal wars, and with Niagara Falls always in the background and often also in the foreground. Ariah's first husband kills himself with a leap into the falls on his wedding night in an incident reminiscent of the disastrous wedding night in McEwan's On Chesil Beach. (Actually it is the other way round since The Falls was published before On Chesil Beach.)

Ariah's second husband, Dirk Burnaby, is a dashing, successful, aristocratic lawyer who has a weakness for damsels in distress. After years of happiness and the arrival of three children, Chandler, Royall, and Juliet, Dirk Burnaby falls for the Lady in Black--Nina Olshaker. The Lady in Black is in distress from the noxious chemicals of Love Canal where she lives--chemicals and polutants dumped there by the chemical companies of Niagara Falls. One of Olshaker's children has died of leukemia and the others are sick. This is all taking place long before the actual Love Canal lawsuits and disaster declarations in the late 1970s and '80s. Without giving away too much let me say that events spiral down when Dirk takes the Olshaker case and drowns in it. Ariah becomes more and more eccentric and isolated as her children mature and bloom in charming ways despite their strangulated family life.

The Falls by Oates is a fascinating and absorbing study of character and social class, and the ways and means of America in the 1950s and `60s especially as instantiated in western Upstate New York. Yes, many of the events portrayed in the novel are improbable or fantastic, but then sometimes is life weirdly surprising. The novel contains many sub-stories and suggestions and events that do not fit and are simply dropped. But, again, life is like that. This is a big, messy, overcooked stew of a novel that's over spiced (I found the few sex scenes to be particularly fulsome). The Falls sprawls and gropes and crawls to sort of a conclusion (opps, sorry for the mixed metaphor).

Oates creates a world, a possible world, with real, living characters. For me, rattling around and exploring that world was absorbing and distracting at least for the eighteen or so hours that the CD version that I listened to commuting took. BTW: The reader, Anna Fields, cannot do a Jewish accent.

It's good to see a big themed novel situated in Niagara Falls, and Joyce Carol Oates, a native of Lockport, the county seat of Niagara County, is the perfect person to provide the look and feel of the area.

The book has two very ambitious themes. The first being marriages/families formed in the 50's and 60's and the other is the danger of stepping outside an entrenched power structure. The City of Niagara Falls and its famous river tie together the themes with imagery of daredevils, tourists, honeymoons, suicides and the general haunting power of the water.

The portrait of Ariah's first marriage, her parents and her second courtship may seem strange to those who hadn't experienced the 1950's. Yes. People were really like that. Ariah's second marriage and her life as a stay at home wife is a little more familiar. Having no interest in her husband's work or about much outside the home, Ariah does not know that her husband is embroiled in major pro bono litigation until an affair with a client is suggested.

In the 70's, as an extension of Ariah's 40's and 50's unexamined life, the generation gap is on display as she undermines her children so they will stay with her. She insults them about their hair and music.

Along with these themes there are side images and scenes which make for a very busy sprawl. I would imagine an editor of a literary icon like Oates would be reluctant to use the delete button but Royall's graveyard scene doesn't belong. There is an overly long portrait of the Stonecrop family. It doesn't seem logical that Chandler would not pursue the knowledge of his mother's first marriage.

This novel starts strong with the first class writing expected of this author. The later parts are often overwritten which detracts from the big themes and the reader ends the book unsatisfied.

I could list many reasons why this was one of the worst books I've read but I've wasted too much of my time on it already.

NO SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW: I picked this up in an airport bookstore on impulse - I'd never read anytihng by Joyce Carol Oates and felt like I ought to read something of hers given her reputation. There were several books by Oates on the shelf but I found that this one had won an award so I purchased it. I started reading it before boarding the plane and over the next 8 hours of delays and flights made it through the first 400 pages.

When I started reading it I was disappointed that this was the book I had read about previously, that began with an awkward wedding night. I remember thinking, when I read reviews of it previously, that I had no interest in it. I probably could have carried returned it and gotten something else but I seldom don't finish a book - its sort of a book reader's version of the Protestant work ethic.

I was captivated by the end of the first chapter. Even if you think you can't really identify with the main characters based on the reviews you have read, you will enjoy this book if you enjoy quality literature and aren't just looking for a mystery that would make a good movie. There isn't one character in it with whom I identify strongly, but the characters are very well developed and like real people, they change as they age and have new experiences.

In "The Falls," Oates has produced a shaggy dog story with about 200 pages of excess fur, characters who don't engage and incidents that don't convince, plus some of the slackest, most cliched writing of her career. It really does seem as though she premised the entire novel on a wondrous opening scene and couldn't figure out where to take it from there.

Lisa, Bright and Dark: A Novel
I think that they book was interesting because of the point of view that it was written from. I also think that the plot line was well thought out.

The cons of this story are that her parents' ignorance is a bit overdramatized. After a certain point you would just have to be plain dumb, or just negligent to the point of cruelty with your children. Betsy's schoolgirl crushes were unnecessary to the story and made it a bit childish. All in all it was a fairly dramatic book, but also enjoyable for a quick read.

That was a bad case of dual personality, and maybe even perhaps a case of schizophrenia. There was never a really good explanation to Lisa's prsonality changes or why she reacted the way she did. The book delivers a touching message in regards to the dangers of split-personality disorders, but reading this novel was like reading a story from a child's point of view. I wanted a little more out of the ending from this novel.

Lisa, a high school student, knows something is seriously wrong with her. She is incredibly moody, sometimes happy and cheerful but other times she gets so dark and unhappy that it seems the entire world is against her and there is nowhere she can turn for help. She has tried to talk to her parents, rich people who are very concerned about their public image, but it hasn't been any help at all. Her parents seem to think that she only wants to talk to a psychiatrist because it is what all of the other cool kids are doing. They tell her that she is imagining her problems.

Lisa's friends are concerned, though. Mary Nell and Betsy decide that if Lisa's parents won't help her, then it is up to them to do something. They decide to offer Lisa the counseling she needs, and to give her a place where she can let out her feelings and hopefully help her friends to help her be cured. Lisa agrees to the idea, and asks that another girl, Elizabeth, be included in the therapy. Mary Nell and Betsy don't know Elizabeth very well but because her presence is important to Lisa, they agree.

Together Mary Nell, Betsy and Elizabeth try to help Lisa to navigate the often terrifying world of mental illness as they desperately hope one of the adults in their lives will step in to help them all out.

I liked that the kids in this book stood up for each other and didn't give up when the adults at their school and Lisa's parents refused to help. I also liked that Lisa wasn't miraculously cured. Even though her friends were doing their best, they still weren't able to fix her mental illness by themselves.

I thought that the adults in this book were really weak. I'd hope that in real life there would have been at least one adult who cared enough to step in and try to help Lisa. I didn't like that people didn't pick up on Elizabeth's story. It seemed obvious to me, and I thought Mary Nell should have been able to figure it out and Betsy should have figured it out much earlier than she did.

I have read it three times since I was in 7th grade. How far does Lisa have to go before her family takes notice that something is trully wrong with her? Adolecent children are now diagnosed at times with mental illness. John Neufeld went inside this world, created a true to life character, and will take you on a journey you won't soon forget. I liked the book because it opened doors to adolecent mental illness I didn't know existed. Ages 12+

This novella is told from the point of view of teenaged Lisa's quiet, unassuming friend Betsy. Lisa believes she is going crazy with visions, nightmares, and wild mood swings. Her parents diagnose their daughter as a drama queen and no teachers want to get involved, so a trio of Lisa's friends set out to provide talk therapy and ensure that she is never alone.

Reading this today, in 2006, the plot seems rather aimless and dated--we now give Prozac to dogs, watch psychology talk shows, hear about the physciatric health of our celebrities, and send therapists to high schools en masse after traumatic events. The plot can certainly be abtstracted to today's world, because psychological problems continue to go undiagnosed, but many details would have to be changed to make this story relevant to modern teens.

Perhaps modern popular culture has desensitized me as a reader, leading me to label this novel aimless. The events of Lisa's unraveling don't hold much shock value any more, or work as devices to drive the plot of a short novel.

There are some books you just need to have on hand for when somebody screaming on a blog starts misquoting said books. I didn't buy this book to read it cover to cover, but I'm glad I've got it to refer to when needed. You'd be amazed what some people out there are claiming are "recommendations of the Iraq Study Group"! Then, when you look it up, you can correct those bandied about misperceptions (or misinformation) in a hurry. For that kind of information, you can't beat the price!

The book The Iraq Study Group Report investigated the problem within Iraq, in regargs to the ensuing militant insurgency and ongoing civil war that we have sometimes seen on the television news in our home countries around the world. Sometimes from these pictures it is hard to view the whole picture which is the Iraqi dilemma of which the US and her allies though fewer in number are still trying to deal with, without further enflaming the racial fundamentalist any further, who from this conflict in Iraq have inspired a coming generations of radical fundamentalist to Al Qaeda radical Fundamentalist Global empire of Usama bin Laden's.

This book analysis of the problem we face and the ideas and method that we can use to destroy this Fundamentalist GLobal network of so called jihadist will only continue if these recommendations are not adapted in Iraq, but also in the wider global context of the worldwide global threat we are facing right at this moment.

I can strongly recommend this book to anyone seriously interested in countering the current fundamentalist jihadi global War we are deeply now engaged in.

Of all the things I have read that relate to the Iraq War this has to be the worse of them all. The book is the most vague and inconclusive guidance I have read so far. It was obviously written by politicians rather than regional experts or middle east scholars so it lacks the substance it needs.

El Marques.

With an economy of words, the book begins: "There is no guarantee for success in Iraq. The situation in Baghdad and several provinces is dire.... There is great suffering and the daily lives of Iraqis show little or no improvement." It then details the problems with security, politics, economics, and international support that transcend a purely military solution to Iraq.

The problems of security begin with the factions of Shiite leaders who do not want to surrender their new-found power and disarm their militias. The Sunni Arabs, long the rulers of Iraq are not ready to abandon their insurgency, al-Qaeda must be progressively pursued and destroyed, and the Kurds are not willing to give up their autonomy.

The politics is equally bleak. The Iraqi government is unable to provide essential services. There is no security for key infrastructure. Corruption is rampant and capacity is inadequate. Their elected representatives "treat ministries as political spoils." The judiciary is also weak and intimidation against them has been ruthless.

With inflation at more than fifty percent and unemployment running from 20-60 percent, Iraq is not ripe for international investment. Oil production has fallen because of a lack of security, investment, and technical expertise. With corruption and negligible security accounting for as much as 500,000 barrels of oil a day being stolen, international support and investment are not likely to occur in the near future.

The Study Group adds seventy-nine recommendations for change in Iraq. First and foremost, it would be wrong for US forces to leave, which has consequences if we do stay, and consequences if we don't. It's the classic lose-lose situation. Unfortunately, the study does not go into any depth how these recommendations are to be accomplished.

Initially, I was skeptical of a board that was co-chaired by James A. Baker III, the virtual Bush family lawyer who argued before the Supreme Court that the all the votes had been recounted when they hadn't been. Seeing the name of Edwin Meese didn't allay my suspicions that this study group might end up throwing soft balls George Bush's way, or would not hold him accountable. On the contrary, they have made it clear that this administration made many mistakes and severely underestimated the situation after it declared that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended."

The study group makes it abundantly clear that Iraq is a complex problem that goes far beyond simple-minded phrases of "stay the course," or "we will not leave until victory is achieved."

For anyone wishing to get a thorough and concise description of the complex problems we face in Iraq, this is an excellent compendium.

It's not surprising that George W. Bush rejected the report.


ECP
01.04.08: 1,710 days since major combat operations in Iraq have ended.




P.S. Also recommended:

"The Battle for Peace" by General Anthony Zinni
"Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq" by Thomas E. Ricks

As Daniel Pipes expounded upon on the New York Sun, The Iraq Study Group Report, cobbled together by ten individuals lacking specialized knowledge of Iraq, dredges up past failed U.S. policies in the Middle East and would enshrine them as current policy.

Most profoundly, regarding the American role in Iraq, the report moronically splits the difference of troops staying or leaving, without ever examining the basic premise of the U.S. government taking responsibility for the country's minutiae, such as its setting up public works projects. Instead, the report unthinkingly accepts that strategic assumption and only tweaks tactics at the margins.

A preposterously lengthy list of 79 recommendations lies at the heart of the report. These include such gems as bringing in the (Saudi-sponsored) Organization of the Islamic Conference or the Arab League (no. 3) to decide Iraq's future. Another creates an "Iraq International Support Group" that includes Iran, Syria (no. 5), and the United Nations secretary-general (no. 7).

Other brilliant recommendations call for the UN Security Council to handle the Iranian nuclear problem (no. 10) and for the support group to persuade Tehran to "take specific steps to improve the situation in Iraq" (no. 11). Right. The Iranian regime, whose president envisions a "world without America," will save Washington's bacon. Such counsel smacks at best of what the Jerusalem Post calls "staggering naïveté" and at worst of ghastly foolishness.

Of course, small minds assert that problems in Iraq are "inextricably linked" to the Arab-Israeli conflict - thereby repeating the precise mistake that lead co-chairman James A. Baker, III, made in 1991. He then led the effort to abandon the Persian Gulf and turn to the Palestinians, leaving Saddam Hussein in power for another dozen years and contributing directly to the present mess. In the new report, Mr. Baker and his colleagues call for a Palestinian state (no. 12) and even demand that a final settlement address the Palestinian "right of return" (no. 17) - code for dismantling the Jewish state. They peremptorily declare that "the Israelis should return the Golan Heights," in return for a U.S. security guarantee (no. 16).

Besides the astonishing conceit of these Olympian declarations, one wonders how exactly the Iraqi civil war would be ended by pleasing the Palestinian Arabs. Or why the unresolved Arab-Israeli conflict is any more relevant to Iraq than the unresolved Azeri-Armenian conflict, which is closer to Iraq.


James A. Baker, III, instructs the president how to use the "Iraq Study Group Report."


To make matters worse, Mr. Baker had the nerve to admonish the Bush administration not to treat the report's 79 recommendations "like a fruit salad," choosing one idea while rejecting another, but to accept it as a whole. Even in Washington, a town famous for arrogance, this statement made heads turn. That Mr. Baker and his co-chairman, Lee Hamilton, sat for a picture spread with famed photographer Annie Liebovitz for Men's Vogue, a fashion magazine, only confirms the vacuity of their effort, as does their hiring the giant public relations firm, Edelman.

In all, the Iraq Study Group Report offers a unique combination of bureaucratic caution, false bi-partisanship, trite analysis, and conventional bromides.

Although the press reacted to this drivel, in the words of Daniel Henninger writing in the Wall Street Journal, with "neurotic glee," Robert Kagan and William Kristol deemed it "dead on arrival," and Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, called it "dead in the water." One hopes they are right, that President George W. Bush ignores its recommendations, and that this "new lipstick on a very old pig" (Spencer Ackerman) quickly disappears from sight.

That's not to say that Mr. Bush should "stay the course," for that course has not worked. A host of creative ideas have been floated by individuals knowledgeable about Iraq, sympathetic to the administration's goal of building a free, democratic, and prosperous Iraq, and not tempted to see their role as an exercise in preening. The White House should call on these talented individuals to brainstorm, argue, and emerge with some useful ideas about the future American role in Iraq.

Doing so means breaking with a presidential tradition, going back at least to 1919, of what I call a "know-nothing" Middle East diplomacy. Woodrow Wilson appointed two completely unqualified Americans to head a commission of inquiry to the Levant on the grounds, an aide explained, that Wilson "felt these two men were particularly qualified to go to Syria because they knew nothing about it." This know-nothing approach failed America 87 years ago and it failed again now.

Very good read. Kellerman is always a favorite of mine and Dr Death did not disappoint me.

I described this book as breezy to a friend who asked about it. It is an easy read, compelling enough to hold your interest and make you want to finish. The characters, of course, are well known to any Kellerman reader. Milo (the gay LAPD detective) is barely present in this book. Alex Delaware is the forensic psychologist and main character.

The plot is centered on a Dr. Kevorkian style MD who assists "travelers" on their journey to death. He is found brutally slain in his euthanesia van hooked up to his own death machine. There are a number of potential suspects and red herrings as well as sub-plots The denouement is interesting and offers up some poetic justice.

Justice appeals to me. I still enjoy it when good prevails over evil. Therefore, I like this book.

If you're looking for entertainment without literary complexity, this book could be just the ticket.

This was the kind of book that made me go WHEW! when I got to the end. LOTS of tension between Alex and Milo - Alex is lucky Milo is such a nice guy.

The tension begins when Eldon Mate is found brutally murdered. The so-called Dr. Death had made a name for himself by euthanizing dozens of people and now someone has mutilated him and left him hooked up to his own death machine. Detective Milo Sturgis has the case and he requests the assistance of his old pal, Psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware. Alex is torn because a referral by a judge friend of his led to him treating a child of one of Mate's victims and now he actually sort of suspects the girl's father may have been capable of killing Mate, but he must not breach doctor/patient confidentiality and hesitates to tell Milo anything. Milo, meanwhile, is having to deal with a couple new D-Is who think they're above scut work and who think nothing of going around Milo's back and smirking about it afterwards. Add one obsessive FBI agent and the stress builds.

There is no shortage of suspects in this one and the investigation goes back and forth - twisty-turny time! The sub-plot dealing with Alex's young patient and her family is a real kicker, too - did Stacy's father kill Mate? Milo thinks so. Alex thinks it's possible, but he very much much wants to think not. Over all, Alex really wears his emotions on his sleeve in this one, his own obsessiveness making him unable to let things go. We see quite a bit of Detective Petra Connor in this one as well (first introduced in Survival of the Fittest and featured in her own book Billy Straight), as she runs interference between Milo and Alex.

The whole case is a total downer for Alex, but it makes for a real page-turner for the reader! Great stuff!

Having read all the previous Alex Delaware mysteries, starting this book felt like a good friend coming to visit. I know all the "good guy" players and I'm happy to see them again. The mystery part is always good and keeps me guessing--I read for entertainment and really don't try very hard to guess. All in all, I wasn't disappointed by Alex Delaware. However, I do think he's not paying enough attention to Robin and this could spell trouble for the relationship.

I found this book to be interesting but somewhat weird. I'm a loyal fan of JK and this one took me by surprise.

Mr. Child certainly has found a niche - technology and writing thrillers. A little difficult to get through all the 00000000's and other techno babble - but necessary to be convincing. Great read...

Now that I've read both Preston and Child as singular authors and coauthors, I now know Preston seems to be the backbone to Preston/Child's collaborative works. With "Death Match", Child developed an intriguing premise but failed to execute the story. Despite the promising premise, the story was actually BORING. It was slow-moving, the characters were "eh", and the end was predictable. It's unfortunate Child didn't have the insight to insert more conspiracy and intrigue, for the "long-awaited" answer to the deaths ended up being disappointingly simple and obvious. Hopefully Child's "Utopia" proves to be a more interesting read.

Lincoln Child starts with an intriguing premise for what could have easily been a 5 star novel.

The book starts of strong and is very gripping -- until the technology that was supposedly used to match the couples is revealed. It starts out pushing the reader's ability to suspend disbelief and things go down hill from there.

The ending is obvious very early on and the book continues on longer after the "secret" is revealed.

I checked it out the library and I would recommend the same for any Lincoln Child fan. It's worth a read, but not a purchase.

** Possible spoilers **

Child obviously has done his homework regarding computers and AI. The premise is an interesting one, the storyline is very well developed and proceeds at an exciting pace. The ending is somewhat far fatched though; the computer Liza being the culprit and all. I mean, if it is capable of tracking Lash's activites and realizing that he is a threat, how come it cannot figure out the plan by our hero and his friends in the end that results in its termination?

Also there are a few loose ends that seem to be storylines in themselves - the stalker, Lash's past life, the enigmatic employees of Eden who seem to be hiding secrets etc. Were they added just to distract and keep you guessing? If so, they were not brought to a satisfactory conclusion.

This book is certainly better than Child's other solo effort - Utopia, a monumental bore despite the lofty title. I am still waiting for the next Douglas/Child joint effort, sans Pendergast, of course. I think we have had enough of the Holmes/Mycroft alter egos.

I read a lot of genre fiction, and I can say without hesitation that Lincoln Child has real talent. Unfortunately, DEATH MATCH turns out to be a minor effort from a writer with tremendous potential.

DEATH MATCH is a very well written book. The quality and intelligence of the writing is first rate, much higher than average. I also thought the premise of the book was highly inventive: the idea of a highly sophisticated matchmaking service that can create "perfect" couples. Indeed, the first two hundred pages of this novel are genuinely great, as Child explores in depth the inner workings of how such a matchmaking organization would work. Clearly, Child has done a great deal of research into personality psychology, which I found quite fascinating.

Unfortunately, this novel goes off the rails about mid-way through. Child abandons the matchmaking premise and instead turns his attention to a supercomputer with artificial intelligence. The reader is forced to wade through a lot of technical computer jargon and a completely unrealistic chase scene through an office building. Even worse, there is an ending that is supposed to be a big surprise, but I found completely predictable and cliched. This book ends with a whimper.

I liked DEATH MATCH enough to read more work by this author. However, this book was ultimately kind of a disappointment, since I was hoping for so much better. Still, if Lincoln Child can fine-tune his plotting, he can turn into the next Michael Crichton in my opinion.

Well, after reading this I can truly see where I messed up during my two attempts. Not enough drugs. Ahh!!. This book is clinical in it's analysis of suicide. It gives the reader precise details on how to commit suicide and what methods are effective. There is very little written about the toll it takes on a suicide's family and friends. It's a book about pure destruction. I guess it is useful to those who wish to end their lives. Speaking from experience I found it frightening. The mere fact that I was moments away from permanent death shook me to the foundations of my being. My hand started to tremble as I turned each page. What gruesome vision would come into my head? What sad song or fleeting memory would drive me to the brink of insanity? But it also begs the eternal question of the meaning of life. Is everyone's life valuable? Is every life sacred? Does committing the act of suicide upset GOD's plan? How important are you really in the great scheme of things. Will you be a forgotten memory or ghost of some ancient time? No one really can answer that question. When I was a younger I had a misearble time of it and things in my life weren't going very well. So, I figured that I had nothing to loose by committing suicide. My method was some pills I found in a medicine cabinet. I took all of them except for a couple. I went to bed and fell asleep in no time flat.

I had weird dreams, none of which I can remember in great detail. I remember feeling a deep sense of regret and extreme sadness. Being that I was never a happy child to begin with, I absorbed misery and harshness like a sponge. To anyone who really knows me( which is very few, I'm very selective and protective of my "world")they would say that I'm well grounded and maybe even well liked but oh no that's not the case. After this period of " suicide attempt by medical perscription" I awoke the next morning to my amazement with a severe headache and even more torturous stomach convulsions, blurred vision and hearing loss that I know deal with from time to time. My initial reaction was anger because I wasn't dead but after the intense pain of a failed attempt sadnes and failure creeped in and overwhelmed the physcial pain of what I had tried to do. It took me almost a week or two to get the chemicals out of my system. I recovered and tried a second attempt a few years later and failed again. After the second attempt I gave up. I figured that it wasn't my time to go. So I eventually had to cope with fleeting feelings of failure and sadness and deep depressions on my own.

Anyway I digress. The book does cause the serious reader to really take into consideration all the options and none of the consequences. Would I recommend this book or the other famous book on the subject " Final Exit "? I guess I would and only as a cautionary tome about what makes you tick or not tick. The final decision is yours.

This does not help anyone. Everyone around me is committing suicide to this book. It's awful... awfully good... awfully good to die to.

Anyone who pays a thousand bucks for a $20 book deserves to die. Give me a break!

When I was 11 years old, my brother and I were walking to our favorite swimming spot on the Colorado River. We passed through a dusty, overgrown lot where an old man had been living in his trailer. We saw him working around his car, with a tube that he'd taped to his exhaust pipe. He looked up, smiled and waved. When my bro and I were done with our swim, we walked home the same way we'd came. We noticed the old man's car running...amber smoke in the car, the long tube taped from his exhaust pipe to the rear window...his head was leaning against the passenger window. We knew then that he'd killed himself.
The thing that strikes me about that memory is the peace that I saw in the old guy's face prior to his making his exit. He wasn't obviously tormented - he looked happily resolved. And if my life was deteriorating in an uncomfortable and irreversible way for myself, I'd like to think I have the backbone to go ahead and pull the plug like he did. Why is there so much stigma attached to this act? I guess the key word here is "irreversible". Some dire situations, certain emotional pains - seem to have no end, so suicide appears to be the best solution to some people...in the moment. If they'd just work through the pain of a temporary situation...they can go on to a happier existence. Is this a dangerous book for people at that threshold? My life partner reacted badly to the mere idea of my owning this book, and brought that point up. I reminded him that he and I come from a generation that was used to hiding all the smut and dirty little details of reality...the new generation is the "Information Age". If a person really wants to learn how to do something, they can research it on the net and forums dedicated to certain controversial topics. But this book DISSUADES someone from making a foolhardy gesture - going into detail about the consequences (pain/crippling) of certain common methods of trying to "dispatch" oneself. It's presented in a very realistic, responsible way. If I had to lose my entire library and only keep one book - this would be the one book that I would keep - tucked safely under my arm - as a valuable reference for the moment I might need it in the (hopefully distant) future. Throughout the tumultuous journey that is life, I find great comfort in having my guidebook, my "map", of how to gracefully, and with dignity, be able to find my final resting place - should I need it.

XXX...As a final note to this review; I found out later that the old man my brother and I saw commit suicide had been pining for his life-long sweetheart, who had died the previous year...in addition to facing grave health problems of his own. I used to go into his abandoned trailer to play "Go-Fish" with my little friends, and never felt weird about what I'd witnessed. I felt like he would have welcomed me being there.
I wish people would start giving up their fear of death in our narrow-minded little western society. Other, comparitively primitive societies have much healthier and more realistic attitudes than we do.

Whenever I feel helples and awfull (which is SO offen) I look up at the stars and wonder why, GOD, did you put me on this earth to suffar? I suffar SO MUCH! i just want to thank you, geo, for helping poeple liek us (the depresed) realize that there is really so little to live for. i might as well die. geo... i'll shake your hand in hevven! i <3 <3 <3 geo!

i have never read this book.

Whine, whine, whine. Get a life woman, and stop detailing every boring thing your father ever did to you.

I don't like giving a synopsis or summary of the book. Thats what reading it is for. What I do like to discuss in reviews is what kind of effect the book had on me. The mood and atmosphere of the book was on the depressing side, but that's okay. Because life is like that sometimes. Like Kyoko Mori, if you don't confront a problem correctly, it will fester in your soul until you come to terms with it. The book was realistic. I like putting down a book and knowing it isn't "too good to be true" because it is true, and I don't end up in a fantasy land.

The book does deal with alot Kyoko's negative experiences and views of the Japanese culture. I love Japanese culture, and I think her views are totally valid. I can accept the good and bad. Why be closed minded? Kyoko even comes to appreciate and understand some of the seemingly "rude" behaviors of her Japanese friends, and can enlighten us outsiders to what might seem to be odd behavior.

Good book. It was nice for Kyoko to let go of some of her personal demons and share this very personal and painful story. Maybe we can all be as brave as her and launch head on into what we've been dreading and fearing.

The main watered down version of this book to save people the trouble of reading it: My past was traumatic, and I hate Japan. GO UNITED STATES!
In other words? Stupid, biased, and well... BAD

This is just like her book "Polite Lies", Ms. Mori just wants to display Japan in the lowest level doesn't she? All right, your past was traumatic. Thank you. Now either get OVER it, or just LEAVE JAPAN ALONE! I'm Japanese, just like this author but lived in the United States for seven years (from when I was 3-10) and have been living in Japan since. Now, as I am living in Japan NOW and not what? 25895039 million years ago (that's the impression I get from her book) I can tell you that the information is WRONG. Her writing style is well, beautiful and imaginitive, but her information? CATCH UP BEFORE WRITING A BOOK AND ACTING PERSUASIVE! If she's trying to lower a foreigner's view of Japan, she's probably done a fine job of it. So as a warning to all foreigners readning this book: IT'S A BUNCH OF LIES!

She also has a load of stuff on the Japanese school system that is so wrong. It's a perfectly fine system okay? Quit bashing on it! It seems she didn't even go through it because she spent half the book boohooing about how bad it was and how EXCELLENT her AMERICAN influenced private school was.

This is a book I relish so much, I limit myself to a chapter a day just to stretch out the enjoyment and savor each sentence. I am an American who has lived in Japan for seven years, and it is so interesting to see the view through her eyes -- she really does capture aspects of Japanese culture that are below the surface, not normally visible, but nonetheless palpable. This girl definitely has a way with words!

In this intensely personal memoir Kyoko Mori visits her home town of Kobe, Japan, in an attempt to come to terms with her mother's suicide and her estrangement from her father.

She came to America at 20, seven years after her mother's suicide, and even then knew she would never return for more than a visit. Her memoir begins with an account of the immediate aftermath of her mother's death - the shrouded atmosphere of shock and grief, her maternal grandparents gentle consideration, her father's jarring insensitivity.

It then jumps to 1990, as Mori, now an American, readies for departure from Green Bay, Wisconsin, where she teaches creative writing at the university. She has always been ambivalent about the country of her birth. When people ask her if she 'goes back,' she winces at their terminology and replies, ' 'I'd like to visit sometime, but there are other places I'd rather travel to if I had the money.' '

The trip is a sabbatical, justified as research for her stories and poems. She will spend four weeks sightseeing. Letters to her family are only sent from the airport: 'I could never get on the plane this morning if I had to see my family first thing upon arrival.' The people she has arranged to meet on arrival are, instead, Americans living in Japan and it is an American family she stays with.

Mori skims over her four weeks traveling. She remains an outsider, treated as a foreigner. The Japanese she meets don't even expect her to speak Japanese. The reader pictures her in her American running shoes and sports clothes, a contrast to the Japanese women in dresses and lipstick, aloof in her tourist personna. But Mori begins to think she would feel alien anyway, even if she had not become so determinedly American. Kobe, where she grew up, is a modern, westernized city with little of Japanese tradition about it. The private school she went to, run by westerners, encouraged her non-conformist creativity. Even Japanese art does not move her.

Upon her return to Kobe she agonizes over calling her father. She longs to see her other relatives - the maternal grandmother, aunts and cousins her father had forbidden contact with at the age of 13. Her paternal aunt and cousin who gave her so much sympathy and love in the difficult years after her father remarried. But she is Japanese enough to know that she must call her father first otherwise the others will feel awkward.

The narrative is haunted by the guilt and grief she still feels over her mother's suicide, the bitterness she carries for her father. Until we meet him, it's easy to feel impatient with Mori as well as sympathetic. Sure, he was a cold, even viscious parent - depriving her of family, threatening to take her out of the school she loved, beating her for speaking her mind, full of psychological cruelties - but she also provoked him with her rash impetuosity. Perhaps Mori should be an adult about it and reconcile. How can he hurt her now?

Then we meet her father and his callous behavior is as breathtaking as it is sad. The stepmother really is like something out of Grimm's fairytales. In their presence Mori becomes like a child again but the years have taught her restraint. Reuniting with her other relatives, she finds it frustrating that Japanese language and custom makes emotional expression difficult. But in the end she also finds a delicacy, even a liberation, in this. Breathing room.

Mori's language is simple, unadorned, affectingly graceful. Her narrative engages the emotions as it struggles with big questions of coming of age and coming to terms with anguish that will never be resolved. In the end she remains an alien in her birthplace and the reader understands a little more about what that means.