General Practice Books

Oy vey--I'm the last person I ever thought would need a book like this, but, apparently, the energetic/spiritual side of me thought differently! I'm SUCH the target audience for this book, it's ridiculous. My chakras started waking up (demonstrated by serious shakes during meditation) and it absolutely freaked me out. I'm only a chapter into this book, but already, it's easing my mind. For those of us who can't walk down the main street of our village to the local shaman to find out what the heck is going on with us, this book will help a LOT. It goes far to explain the differences between a 'spiritual emergence' and 'going completely insane'--and even though my gut was telling me that I wasn't insane, it has helped immeasurably to read it in print. If you're confused about what may be happening to you spiritually, this book should help. I'm totally grateful for it.

An excellent book for anyone involved with psychotherapy or magical / spiritual practices, whether as a guide / therapist / teacher, student, or simply on your own journey. This is a good introductory overview of the subject of Spiritual Emergence and Spiritual Emergency. I believe anyone undertaking serious magical work, training or psychotherapy, at some stage will undergo a crisis, which can then either lead to Spiritual Emergency or Spiritual Emergence. The research and ideas this book contains can assist in one's own development or guiding someone else through those dark days and nights.

A strong soulful effort to bring gentle balance to a difficult but natural transition, much needed in western culture.

In addition to my previous review of this book I wrote down some thoughts and feelings that came to me while reading this book.

Briefly, my overall feelings on the book are that it is possibly the most influential book I have yet to read relating to personal transformation and the processes of therapy. With essays from a wide range of authors it shows that there is an undercurrent to the dominant medical view of mental disorder/illness, which has a firm basis in reality rather than trying to force a medical model onto conditions with an "unknown cause" - that is a cause that may not have an apparent logical, rational, or objective basis.

I feel a sense of hope reading this book, seeing that others (some with qualifications in psychology or psychiatry from prestigious Universities) share some common beliefs about the spiritual basis of transforming crises.

What follows are some thoughts and occasionally questions I will ponder on for some time before they become clear:

There is a theme of "non-standard" states of consciousness being suppressed.

In ancient times: imprisonment, torture, death, and isolation
In modern times: medication to suppress

Transformative psychological events often parallel shamanic experiences.
Question: Increase in "mental illness" stemming from evolutionary change in consciousness? This is being suppressed at present by psychiatry. Is consciousness trying to change and evolve into higher forms on a larger scale, rather than more isolated shamanic initiations?

The importance of the subjective experience, e.g. Past Life Regression. The objective or factual explanations are not necessary or relevant to the transformative process. Only the subjective is necessary in the scope of Self Growth or therapy. It is irrelevant whether one actually had that Past Life, or whether the Past Life memories are a fictional way of experiencing a set of beliefs and issues within one's psyche.

Recurring (personal) conflict between super-normal experiences and consensus reality. This is the basis of psychosis (for diagnosis), that a person's thinking is non-rational, and departs from what is considered normal or representative of what is normal. For me personally, I have had to adjust from being highly sceptical of anything which was non-rational, non-logical, to being able to think and understand in transpersonal, spiritual and magical terms. This probably places me within the definition of psychotic, although I have also kept a reasonable grip on consensus reality, not departed from it. So, while "magical thinking" is one of the symptoms of psychosis, the ability to "think magically" and also function within society seems to allow one to functional fully. Possibly medicating people with tranquillising medicines stops people being able to work through a psychotic departure from reality and retain the ability to "think magically" but also to function within society or the physical world.

Question: Is Possession akin to Multiple Personality Disorder Syndrome? And rooted in sub-personalities. It certainly seems likely to me the MPDS stems from a severe trauma resulting in a subpersonality or conglomerate of subpersonalities taking over to ensure the survival of the individual Self, in some form. Possession also is a departure, usually temporary, from the Self being in control and a dominant and regressive subpersonality being in control, or perhaps even an external "entity". Perhaps that would lead to two types of possession, one by an external agent the other being sub-personality possession?

With new "mental states" one needs to adjust to living with new views of reality and still retain the ability to function in mundane society. This carries on from the above comments on "magical thinking" and psychosis. It may be productive for a time for a severe departure from reality, but preferable to have an experienced guide (therapist / shaman) to assist one's journey and even more preferable (but generally unobtainable in present society) a retreat where one can go to and work through changes in the view of reality. It seems that it is possible to keep a grip on rationality and also experience non-rationality intermittently or at the same time, and with some effort functional to some degree within society (ie. Hold down a job, and maybe even a relationship!), and grow and expand one's consciousness into new realms, and formulate new views of reality.

Death and World Destruction themes. The birth - life - death - rebirth (renewal) are common themes in paganism and alchemical process. In Alchemy (spiritual and laboratory) there are phases of putrefaction, negredo (blackening) and other "unpleasant" stages through which things are transformed.

Dysfunctional families. This is another strong theme in the book, and basically the topic for a one-hour talk I gave. It is families that are seen as the root of psychosis in many instances. The term schizogenic is used by one author.

In dealing with people in Spiritual Emergency personal qualities are more important than professional qualifications. Non-labelling is also important, and something we talk about in Psychosynthesis, about not putting "things" and "people" into little boxes, but letting them be how they are.

According to John Perry, the renewal process requires an emotional framework (a partner). This is curious and relates back to what I've been taught, thought about, and experienced with the Inner Mate process, and various interactions of the anima and animus. It may also relate heavily to "Self in relationship to Other" which was the theme of the second year Psychosynthesis course, and the various functions of a guide (shaman or therapist).

This book is a must for anyone who is experiencing or who knows someone who is experiencing spiritual emergence. It provides essential information so that you know you are not moving into uncharted territory or losing your mind. Spiritual emergence can be an extraordinary healing process and much much more. I highly recommend this book.

This is one of the best books I have ever read. Not only does Mr. Main get to the heart of what this life is about but he includes stories to demonstrate it. He has a gift at story telling. It was hard for me to put the book down. He addresses the faith of Mother Teresa whose writings were recently in the news but puts the correct spin on what she was saying. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to increase their faith in God and wants to make a difference in those around them.

This book was really inspiring. Bruce gives wonderful examples to emphasize his points. This is the only book that I have finished since I have had children (& little time to myself)! I only hope that I can learn from this book to notice & appreciate God's work in the everyday. I look forward to his next book!

I stumbled upon Bruce Main and Urban Promise after watching the 20/20 special on the kids of Camden. Bruce Main's latest book is nothing short of phenomenal. The book is an inspiration, written with such faith, hope and love that you cannot help but cry as you read through it. This man is an inspiration and his writing confirms that. From the illustrations he uses to make his points (Mother Teresa on faith and feelings) to his humbling confessions of doubt, Bruce Main brillantly crafts the best book I've read in a very long time. Kudos to him and all his efforts with Urban Promise. God bless him for sharing his vision with the world and for enlightening us all to the plight of the kids in Camden who now see hope through his eyes.

This is certainly a great book. If anyone say the special on Camden NJ this is a great book to read. Even if not this is just a book I will hold and read again and again. Our church evangelism committee actually purchased this for there collection. I loved the book and have pre ordered his next one!!!

Of all the books I have read on Christian spirituality, including several by more well known authors, this is the one I have found to be most inspirational and most enjoyable. Rarely have I found books on spirituality that I can't put down. Bruce does and excellent job of crafting his stories in a way that enables them to fit together with the overall message. Each story is carefully selected and is fun to read. The honesty with which he speaks of his own faith and tells stories relating to his own life is wonderful and adds to the richness of the book. Bruce's honesty helps the reader to feel connected as though he is merely one of us, as opposed to many authors who give an air of superiority.

Gumbel has run over the history of American electoral fraud, starting as early as 1788 and running through extensive discussions of the 2000 and 2004 elections.

On the way we learn about a number of fascinating scandals of the past, now largely forgotten, along with some that haven't been, such as the famous Tammany Hall gang that dominated New York City for a decade. Gumbel shows that, while big-city corruption got the publicity, elections in many rural areas were equally dirty. He also show how periodic concerns over ballot box stuffing have resulted in a numbr of reforms that, by making voting harder, have effectively lowered participation, which was once at around 80% of eligible voters, and now is sometimes below 50%. For instance, the secret ballot, by replacing earlier party-distributed ballots that had shown, by color and logos, which party they represented, had the quite intentional effect of disenfranchising many illiterate immigrants and former slaves. The practice of denying the vote to convicted felons even after completion of their sentence was invented entirely to prevent former slaves from voting, and is used to disenfranchise blacks to this day, as notably happened in Florida 2000.

Gumbel's discussion of the Florida crisis is useful, although I thought a little too hard on Gore. His discussion of Ohio 2004, which he feels was clearly a legitimate victory, although he does show the strong evidence of illegitimate means used to suppress the Kerry vote, is obviously unconvincing for many of his readers here. (It's interesting to note that, although the book really works not to be a partisan tract, the reviewers on Amazon seem to be overwhelmingly Democrats.)

The extensive discussion in this book of touch screen voting shows clearly how flawed the technology is in current form. He also adds a fascinating historical perspective by showing how past changes, earlier voting machines and punch card ballots, were promoted in their time as technological wonders which would eliminate corruption and make voting easier.

One thing that is very convincing indeed in this section is the discussion of how professional election administrators have repeatedly ignored, downplayed, or just flat lied about the flaws in technology they have committed taxpayer money to, both with e-voting and with previous technologies. I used to think that the professionals who explained how my fears of touch screen voting were groundless probably knew what they were talking about, since they worked with the systems so closely. I won't ever trust those quotes again after reading this book.

Gumbel's discussion of touch screen voting in other countries is also interesting, both for how he shows that such advanced nations as Venezuela do far better than the US at holding clean and reliable elections, as well as some anecdotes showing that American voting equipment companies have just as doubtful a record overseas as they do at home. This section will give you the mild relief of knowing that the way they're screwing up our elections is (probably) more a matter of corporate greed and incompetence than a deep conspiracy to install permanent right-wing government by fixing elections.

Steal This Vote is a fascinating book whose interesting premise is unfortunately marred by a boring and choppy writing style. Gumbel's accusations, arguments and images are stirring and rather frightening; the fact that elections have been stolen for the last two hundred years isn't exactly encouraging to those supporting election reform. He paints a very clear picture of each point in election-stealing history, from the early days of the Republic to Chicago's Daley machine to the 2000 and 2004 debacles. Each shocking detail comes out fast and harsh, which is alarming (as it should be) for the first few chapters, but then soon becomes repetitive and tiring. That doesn't keep the whole story from enlightening the reader, however. Even if I struggled to get through this book, I learned the history of elections in this country and how they are taken for granted and are almost never clean. And though I am constantly distressed by the American population's election habits, Gumbel's suggestions for reform are reasonable goals for which I will fight to the end. With some more editing, perhaps a new edition of this book could be more easily read, and I think it should be read. This population is too ignorant of its system's workings; if the people knew that their perfect democracy is not so perfect, there would be hell to pay, and then there may at last be change.

One would have thought that of all the boring topics that an author could select, the mechanics and history of the secret ballot in the world's pre-eminent democracy should have been close to the top. But far from it, Mr Gumbel has documented and told a quite extraordinary and at times amazing tale. Whether he is right in every detail I have no idea but either way it ought to have every US citizen asking some very tough questions. Politics can be a venal game but surely the actual electoral process itself ought to be above question. Sadly it seems in the USA it's not.

I was really impressed with this book. This is an incredibly important topic, and the author is so immensely knowledgeable, and his handling of the material is so comprehensive and fair, that by the end, I felt closer to grasping what's been going on with American politics than ever before. It turned my perception of the whole voting process in America completely around (I really never suspected it was THIS bad). If you have any interest at all in politics (and if you don't, well, you might be past saving), you should read this, and pass it along, and talk about it. It's an eye-opener. And so entertaining! I laughed out loud several times, and throughout, I felt that the author was presenting really substantial, weighty information in an appealing, witty style. (It's a fun book to cart around, too -- about 15 people stopped me and asked me about the book after glimpsing the title.)

The election travesties of 2000 and 2004 left me angry and disgusted. I'm still angry and disgusted about those events and their conduct, but after reading Gumbel's book, I've softened my impressions a bit and redirected the focus of my ire and disgust. It's clear to me now that no American political party has ever seriously objected to election theft as long as the result was victory. Since achieving honest elections has never been an honest goal (except temporarily for the losers), a party in power has never had genuine interest in realizing honest results! So, here we are.
I shouldn't be surprised at all that, but Gumbel's detail, clarity and focus make me wonder why I'm so late coming to the full realization table.
Gumbel provides clear insight. Nevertheless, the reader is left to judge for himself what all this says about the alleged state of democracy in the U.S.A., past and present.

I just started to learn about gemstones for use with the chakras, and healing, etc. This book was recommended to me and I'm glad it was.

This author gives a smattering of historical views of gem folklore as well as her own experiences. Easy format to understand and unlike some other books who cut and paste phrases for 10s of 1000s of stones, this author is concise and fun to read. The mumbo jumbo and catch phrases you find in many other books are thankfully missing. A fun overview for anyone even slightly interested in folklore. Note that this includes only stones that are pretty well known by most and that were loved and revered by past generations.

The books contains excellent information on some stones and metals. Very practical also. It's not "The Complete Guide to Stone Power" due to it's limited amount of listed stones. But with the ones that are being explained the author did a great job. Great for beginners, or the very busy business person interested.

which might be a problem for people who want to see scores of beautiful gemstones on every page.
However, interesting, as it reflects on some things other authors fail to mention, such as:
- "gem and stone personality" ("which gem are you" sort of thing),
- gems and stones as health balancing aids (arranged in a nice memento-manner on three pages),
- how to wear yout gemstones (which part of body, which hand, which finger - very interesting!)
Loved the "what metal with what stone" and tables on gems as professinal image supports, energy solving capabilities of gems, gems as performance aids, gems as attitude balancing aids and small section on preferred gems of the ancients. These sections are something I don't think I found in any other book, at least not so neatly arranged in a form of a memento.
A-Z on stones I found profoundly lacking due to absence of at least one representative photo, and quite a few gems and stones missing.
Also very confusing are some of the things the author writes on particular gemstones compared to other authors (like diamonds - she gives them very little praise).
In general it can be quite confusing to see to what degree properties of gemstones (whether healing or magickal) differ from one book / author to another!

Stone Power is a light-hearted introductory book that would be a fun read for anyone new to the legends and lore surrounding gemstones. It would make a fun gift, too. The current edition would be improved upon by the addition of certain stones not mentioned, i.e. kunzite, morganite, tanzanite, iolite, and moldavite. Even so, it's still a great book!

Excellent and deep text on Becoming ... a better person, liberated, purified in character. And much more.
I feel a deep measure of gratitude to the author.
Deep bows,
HikerBob

This is a cloudless and exceedingly matter-of-fact atlas for anybody who involves themselves with meditation practice. This book is truly a practice guide, as the title suggests. Although I would without hesitation recommend this book to beginner's, it's honestly more for those of us more familiar with meditative practices.

The author, Matthew Flickenstein, takes aim at what most of us commonly call vipassana (insight) meditation. He gives a pretty surprising investigation into both it's benefits, and what sometimes can lead to actual drawbacks. The purpose of insight meditation, he points out, is to simply see things as they really are. Reality as it is. In order for that to happen, we need to not discriminate what we are aware of, we must be truly be aware of all that arises, without grasping or even resisting any of our experiences. But whenever we move our concentration in a specific direction, such as the breath, we are subtly forming a purpose and we are no longer communicating "no preference" in our awareness of what we are experiencing.

This book goes into much more specific detail about the benefits and drawbacks of certain styles of practice, something I could never summarize in the confines of such a review. Matthew Flickenstein presents us with a most intriguing body of work here, a priceless companion on our road of discovery and introspection. So what are you waiting for? Buy it!

Finally, a Dharma text that avoids the unnecessary mystical, vague, and ambiguous writing notorious in much of Buddhist literature without devaluating the inherent mystical, vague, and ambiguous nature of Buddhism. Bravo, Mr. Flickstein!

Confused or adrift in your practice? Maybe reading a lot and putting off actually getting on that cushion you ordered? Well, read this book (and Ayya Khema's *Visible Here and Now*) and you will be confused, lost, or procrastinating no more. Brilliant insight shined right where you need it. GET THIS BOOK!

Echoing a previous commentator, the emphasis of this book is definitely Vipassana. Nevertheless, it is an exceptionally lucid read - quite a contrast to some of the more abstruse texts associated with Theravada. I thoroughly enjoyed the clarity of the work and find it a great addition to my small library of buddhist writing.

I am not even finished with this book yet and I love it. It is that little push that mom's need to hear. It is written well and really gets the points across. Mom's need to realize to be great mom's and wives...we need to take care of ourselves too.
Highly recommend this book! I buy it for all the new moms I know.

I loved this book! As a busy mom who still wants to cultivate my spiritual life and become more intimate with Jesus, I drank up Guffey's lyrical prose. She is a talented writer with a transparent heart. I was convicted, inspired and encouraged by this book. It came at just the right time, and said just the right things. Thank you, Angela!!!

Awesome, powerful book. It gave me much needed wisdom on parenting, motherhood, and Christ - all of which I needed to hear the very moment I read it! Wonderful book! I will always cherish it.

I can relate to this book. It has convicted me, challenged me, and encouraged me in my realtionship with Christ, my husbnad, and my child.

I cannot say enough about this book. I am a stay at home mom of 3 under 5 and managed to read this in a weekend! I felt like the author came over for coffee and stayed a while. What a blessing. My book club just finished discussing it and it is a favorite for each of us. I mailed a copy to five other friends. If you are in the midst of motherhood, please do your soul a favor and read this wonderful book.

I agree with the majority of reviewers here, but I think you have to be an intelligent reader to appreciate it. For example, on page 20, in golf the author discourages distracting activities while opponents are playing, but you could disturb opponents, especially musically competent ones, while you yourself are playing, "by constantly whistling a phrase with one note - always the same note - wrong." In the footnote he actually writes the musical notation of a suggested phrase, the horn motiv from Wagner's Ring, with the second note changed from an A to a D# with a glissando (sliding up to the high note). I laughed out load before I even tried to play the phrase on the guitar. I realize that some won't see the humor here, but what incredible depth in the descriptions of these tactics!

I first bought this book, thinking it would be along the lines of Sun Tzu meets Frazier...I wasn't disappointed, but the '50s writing style is not fluid to read

This tome offers a complete introduction to the theory and practice of gamesmanship. Though some of the ploys are outdated, if properly executed, these gambits will most certainly put the gamesman in the one-up position. The coverage of countergamesmanship, while sparse, is essential reading for gamesman at any level.

This book instantly turned me into a Potter fiend, and I subsequently tracked down first editions of all four -manship books. This is dry, deadpan British humour at its absolute finest - I've never seen an American writer come close, except for Mark Twain.

I came across this at some rummage sale, and once I started reading it I was instantly hooked on Potter's dustbowl-dry wit and bought all his other books. Each is outstanding, but this is still the best. For the uninitiated, this has nothing to do with playing games; it has everything to do with attitude, games people play with and against one another in life, and poking fun at our egos and self importance...and the egos and self-importance of others. There's no explaining Potter's humor - you either love it, or you don't get it at all. I love it. Even the 'diagrams' are absolute screams. Only Wodehouse was as funny or funnier than Potter.

this was an excellent book about a journey to the innerself and womanhood
i would recommend this book to anyone

Shamanic wisdom, mystical spirits, Native American culture--if these are your heart topics, and you love the way Lynn Andrews writes, you will love this book.

Lynn Andrews returns to the familiar magical storytelling mixed with the idea that we can all be mystics if we only follow her shamanic wisdom. I'll admit a love-hate relationship to her books. "Jaguar Woman" moved me from my cynical, career-driven bent, but as my own path developed before me, I followed Andrew's less. Possibly because I could not match her shamanic travels, uber-human experiences and amazing way of life.

This paperback is another of the Sisterhood of the Shields series. Here, Andrews explores the inevitability of aging and death. She examines the many "little deaths" that occur in life--getting let go or fired from a job, a death in the family, divorce, the long-term illness of a loved one.

The book is an introduction to 'elderhood' with a recognition of another transition--one in which we accept what is, even as we see our friends begin to age and die. We learn to withstand these times and to grow from them.

As Americans, we generally hide from death or simply defy it. This is a good book to grasp the reality of elderhood.

For about 25 years Lynn Andrews has written memoir after memoir of life as an urban shaman living between both worlds. Tree of Dreams examines getting older and balancing her two lives. This book is less fantastical and the passage of time has lessened the melodrama of her earlier work. I still don't get The Red Dog rival and wonder still if he is some imaginary antagonist to make this Native American like. Overall, an interesting perspective on getting older and holding the medicine wheel in Andrews' world. I just wonder if this belongs in the non-fiction section and whether the Cree tribe in Manitoba, Canada are getting royalties. Having known a Native woman who lived on a reserve in New York State, one thing seems to be common - they don't rejoice at Andrews or her work.

As I've followed Lynn's growth and teachings over the many years that she's written (I have an older copy of Medicine Women with the native women and crow on the front........pages have fallen apart, the cover taped back on, etc.), I was pleased when I came across this newer addition to her volume of work. In this book she descibes her feelings on what it's like to have an ailing parent and the process of death. She describes her on going search for answers which also proves that even for all she's learned, she still does not profess to have "the truth". Quite the contrary, she wonders about good and evil, duality, etc.. Her on-going relationship with Red Dog is put in a somewhat different light. It's almost a love hate relationship. A good read and very down to earth. What is interesting also is the process that was involved to write her first, Medicine Women.

Tree Of Dreams: A Spirit Woman's Vision Of Transition And Change by Lynn Andrews is a deeply moving narrative of her quest for growth, spiritual fulfillment, and better understanding of sacred things. Embracing the power of healing and coping with "little deaths" such as divorce or the sudden loss of a job, as well as the great losses of loved ones to "Time's Eternal March", Lynn Andrews' Tree Of Dreams is a powerful and moving metaphysical reflection. Also very highly recommended are Lyn Andrews' previous books: Medicine Woman and Jaguar Woman.

I am not an expert developer but I have a fair amount of experience building financial applications in Java and C++. I spent quite some time looking for a book that would get me started with Web technologies. It is not easy. Yes, there are many books that describe one or another technology but I wanted to find one that puts these technologies in prospective. I was very pleased when I found this book. I can always dig deeper in one direction when I need to but this book helps me to understand how to get started and where to concentrate my efforts. I like it, I think it is very useful.

I have to disagree with the reviewer who disparaged this book's emphasis on history. The background on TCP/IP protocols explained how HTTP came to be and why servers and browsers work the way they do. Discussion of how web development platforms evolved provided insight into the problems newer approaches tried to solve and the problems some of them created. The authors may have gone overboard spouting the merits of "separating content from presentation" and touting the praises of MVC approaches, but their point is a valid one you can really relate to if you've worked with page-centric platforms like ASP and JSP. The historical review of different approaches explained the authors' reasons for ultimately choosing an MVC approach with Struts and JSTL, and offered insights into how development platforms may evolve in the future. This is a book that starts with basics and builds on them, covering protocols, markup languages, and development platforms. The history helps drive the points home. Personally, I learned a lot from this book. I agree that they could have provided a CD-ROM, but it turns out their website (webappbuilders.com) is pretty good and has other good info aside from the app's source code, including some articles from the authors.

This book is an ideal text for providing intermediate-level web developers with a solid grounding in architectural principles and more advanced techniques. Before going into why I like this book I do want to offer one caveat - the authors' approach is towards the Model-View-Controller paradigm, and is based on Java Standard Tag Library, Jarkata struts and Apache. These are solid elements, but if you are working in a different environment you will not appreciate this book as much.

The historical material in this book is not fluff if you approach it with the intent to gain a fuller understanding of the major components of the Internet and web. This material is rich with details about why the core web technologies developed and evolved, including design choices the pioneers made in the face of constraints. In a subtle way this part of the book is a primer on design and architecture.

What makes this book so valuable is the non-trivial application that brings this book alive. This is a refreshing change from other books that use thinly contrived snippets of code or trivial applications. The code for this application can be downloaded from the book's supporting web site, which also contains errata (thus far there are only two entries), and articles that are valuable resources with or without this book.

Overall this is one of the better books on web application design and development, and one that dives into code and technical details.

I've been writing Windows-based mutlimedia applications since Windows 95 was released. I've been looking for a good book to help the crossover to web application development, and I found that this was just the ticket. Explanations were solid and presented in a way that made experimentation easy (both from the browser and server side). Quite simply, this book served as a great jumping off point for deeper exploration into session management, security, web services (both SOAP and Rest), etc. Definitely a great introduction for folks with a software engineering background.

I always thought Amazon search is good but I stumbled upon this book at a store. It's a useful summary, but not a reference. I particularly like the examples and the way they build up from trivial to complex. The level of detail is right. Altogether, very refreshing.

I've used this GREAT book before my last trip to the USA. It's amazing the difference it made to my english. I had several business meetings with Americans and I understood everything, I mean everything they said. That didn't happen to me before using "Waddaya say?". I also learned to use reduced forms to improve my speed. But the most important thing is the almost magical change in my understanding. A suggestion is to follow carefully the instructions, then listen each conversation an repeat it many times. The book is also great source of expressions and uses, not just reduced forms. A must have ! Thank you Nina !!!!!

My students told me that they can finally understand spoken English. This is the best listening book for that. One student said, "It's like magic. I couldn't understand people speaking English last year, and now I can."

This is an excellent book - tape for those who want to learn how to understand American/Canadian "everyday" language.
It is very clear in the way pronunciation is explained and the practice material is fun!

It is a good book for those who never learned how to say "what do you want to do?" in a natural way. This book shows you 20 and only 20 most common short forms. The content is well organized. But it is pricey for a book that has only 68 papges. For the most part, you may do a search and find them somewhere in the internet. But then again it is a good deal for those who do not care about the price.

I've used the First Edition of Whaddaya Say for almost twenty years. Nothing I've used to teach students to understand spoken English has ever been better. I was very pleasantly surprised to use the Second Edition, which was published in 2001, and find that all of the lessons that made listening comprehension easier for my students were included along with an additional ten lessons. The fun conversations are even better, and the tapes are really great. I didn't know tests could be useful as well as funny, but there's a wonderful test at the end of the book that was a lot of fun. I want my students to know how English is really pronounced (*wanna for "want to", *hafta for "have to", *gonna for "going to + verb", etc.). When they don't know the real pronunciations, they have a really hard time understanding spoken English.

I'm amazed by one thing in particular -- although the Second Edition of Whaddaya Say has 30% more pages and there are three cassettes now instead of two, the price hasn't gone up. I don't know why the price hasn't increased, but it seems like a great bargain to get a beautifully updated bestselling listening book for the same price as the prior version!

I don't see how anyone can really learn listening comprehension without this book.