Independent Books

As a fellow historical fiction author, I found Juliet Waldron's attention to detail and historical accuracy refreshing and entertaining. She has a unique voice that reflects well the manners and dialogue of the Revolutionary War era and uses her research subtly - not heaping it on all at once.

While this is not a straight historical fiction book, neither it is a bodice-ripping romance novel. It is a fast-paced, intelligent read that will entertain and probably educate you about life during the Revolution.

Independent Heart tells the story of Angelica, who must trust her life, and more importantly, her honor, to a mysterious stranger, Jack Carter.
Readers will be transported to a time of peril, divided loyalties and intrigue as Angelica triumphs over threats and danger.

Jessica James, author, Shades of Gray: A Novel of the Civil War in Virginia
2008 INDIE and IPPY award winner

I'm not a big fan of the romance genre, so when I first encountered Jack Carter - your typical handsome and mysterious romance novel hero - in the first chapter, I was a little disappointed. However, I kept reading, and I'm glad I did, because not only did I learn something about an aspect of American history I wasn't too familiar with, I also went on quite an adventure with Jack and Angelica.

This story moves. From the time Angelica is kidnapped by a creepy would-be suitor and rescued by Jack, the two of them are on a roller-coaster of events that take us to some of the places and people who aren't the first thing that come to mind when we think of the American Revolution. Maybe I'm just ignorant, but I didn't know much about the Dutch settlers of this country, so it was refreshing to read about them and be introduced to their culture. Also, Jack and Angelica spend some time with another group I didn't know existed - the outlaws on the border country. In each case, I liked the way Waldron weaves historical detail into the plot rather than bringing things to a stop to insert a treatise on history.

Although I liked the overall storyline, I was a little disappointed in the characters and specifically, in their relationship. It seemed to me there wasn't much development of that relationship. The chapter when Angelica is kidnapped and rescued, particularly, seemed a little flat to me. I get the feeling that the main reason Angelica is going along with Jack is that he is so gorgeous and virile. She tells herself she loves him, but I don't really see LOVE developing between them, just infatuation and physical attraction. (By the way, Waldron is pretty discreet with sex scenes, closing the door before too much happens.) However, that's a general complaint I have about romance novels - that the relationships are rather superficial. I understand that other people enjoy the genre, and I think they wouldn't have the same reaction to the interaction between Jack and Angelica that I had - in fact, they would probably find it satisfying.

Despite that minor disappointment, I found the book satisfying myself, and I'm glad I read it. I would recommend it to fans of historical romance.

It begins straightforwardly enough at an elegant ball, seeming to be just another romance novels; the beautiful and spirited heroine, the studly and devastatingly attractive yet mysterious hero and the menacing, Snidely Whiplashesque villain determined to assault the heroines' virtue. Actually they both are determined to assault Angelica TenBroeck's virtue; it's just that the hero has got a bit more couth about him... which is why he is the hero. That, and Angelica is all wobbly in the knees about Jack - er, whatever his surname and rank is, anyway. It changes several times during the course of the book, depending on whatever situation he is trying to talk his way out of.

When Jack er - Whatever rescues the fair Angelica from the vile clutches of Snid - oops, Major Armistad of His Majesty George III's army of occupation in New York, gallantly promising to return her safely to her uncle's household behind the Rebel lines in the upper Hudson River valley, the story takes a new turn. This might strike some readers as somewhat disconcerting. It's rather like biting into a cake covered with sweetened whipped cream and instead of having it turn out to be something light and crisp, discovering that there is a historical novel underneath, like a like dense and solid slice of fruitcake.

But rich historical fruitcake it is; deftly written and very well researched, if concealed under a layer of romantic frosting which might initially put off the fans of straight historical novels. Angelica and Jacks' flight from New York turns into one of those interesting, picaresue jorneys, through a part of the country today not particularly renown for being wild, wooly or otherwise lawless. That it might once have been is part of the eye-opener, as they encounter gun-powder smugglers, a band of Scotch-Irish rievers, Rebel and British soldiers, kindly Tory sypathizers, and a kidnapped minister who discovers that given sufficiant whiskey, he can indeed preach a powerful blood and thunder sermon.

The fact that there was a clash of cultures between the Dutch and the Scotch-Irish settlers, just as much as a clash of politics, adds a layer of complexity not usually found in straight romance novels. The details of 18th century living - food, cleanliness, conditions of travel on horseback and personal safety - are also addressed in more depth than usual. The device of Angelina's bluebird quilt patches, to which she continues adding at every stop, all during her adventure is a clever linking device. Even when they reach her uncle's farm, there is no safety for either one of them. There is still a war on. Jack and Angelica's participation in the messy business of divided loyalties and near-civil war is obligatory. And thereby hangs the rest of the story; somewhat less of a fluffy costume romance and more of serious historical. But not to fear - the ending is mostly happy, just as the first chapter promised.

(Being the account of Angelica TenBroeck's flight from New York City
during
the late War of Independence, her would-be lovers, and a bluebird
quilt)

That is the description listed at the beginning of the book and it
about
covers the plot.
Angelica is a daughter of an old Dutch New York family who has fled
the
frontier where she was born and raised and is staying with an aunt in
New York
City, recently lost to the British. A British officer attempts to force her to marry him but man she's recently been introduced to at a
ball comes
to her rescue and together they set out to return her to her home.
But to get
there, they will have to brave brigands, bandits, the British, the
loyalists,
the patriots, the Indians and each other. It's quite a journey.

If you like very detailed historical novels, road romances, and war
stories
then
Independent Heart might be for you. Angelica is a woman of common
sense
and bravery who falters only rarely under immense strains and
pressures. Jack
Church is the mystery of the story and we see many sides to him and
learn
about him when and as Angelica does. Is he the civilian we first
meet? The
younger son looking for land of his own and with family ties in the
area?
The former cavalryman who is no stranger to dirty fights and killing?
Or
someone else altogether? And when Angelica finally discovers who he
really is, can she forgive enough for them to find a future? If they
even
manage
to survive the savage frontier fighting that rages all along the
Hudson
River.

Waldron has a slightly old fashioned style of writing. At times
flowery,
slightly emotional at others, down to earth and blunt when needed.
It's
also clear she's done her research which is threaded through the story
and not dumped in heaps on the reader's head.
Parts of it aren't pretty but then civil wars (and that's what the
American
Revolution was at times) never are.

Independent Heart isn't without flaws but for a different view of
that War,
I highly recommend it. FYI, the love scenes are restrained.

the book came quickly and it was in good condition--i was perfectly satisfied

Not really afull review as not had time to read all the book
(its a lot of pages) But so far seems quite comprehensive and detailed certainly some useful infomation and reasonably well organised in places , although in others picture layout of island groupings dont always make sense to what the text states,
but may be better giving a review after I have reade more (so far read about 25-30 pages which is really just all the intros
but never the less stillm info in here that would be really difficult to find easily elsewhere. For UK buyers, if you are buying a couple of books then order from the US if you dont need them straight away as its cheaper there, also the UK Amazon site dont list the 2006 version. I fot the rough guide at the same time to the greek islands both UK prices are £11.99
so it would 24 pounds plus delievry in the UK, and it only cost me 23 pounds ordering with delivery from the US

I have found this book very helpful in planning a trip to the Greek Islands. However do have one critiscm in that it is not very clear about the winter months,january to april.

At the same time that Benjamin Grierson was making his remarkable raid through Mississippi and on to Baton Rouge, another raid took place in the opposite direction. Poorly equiped and badly scouted, Colonel Abel Sleight's raid across northern Alabama could have been successful with better scouting and being better equipt.

Robert Willett has written an interesting story based on eyewitness accounts and regimental histories. This work, which is well cited, is the only in depth work on this raid. Perhaps the most unfortunate aspect of this work is that it will not gain the attention it deserves since it was not published by an academic press or written by an academic scholar. So much the loss.

I'm a great history student on Nathan Bedford Forrest myself. When I heard about this book, "The Lightning Mule Brigade" I immediately had to have it because I knew that NBF was involved in deterring Streight's Raid into Alabama. Bob Willett has done an outstanding job at pulling all the reference resources together into a great book about the raid. It has a lots of factual accounts that make for excellent reading about Forrest and Streight alike.

Okay, first of all let me start by stating that I was born and for the most part raised in Gadsden, Alabama. Abel Streight & Nathan Bedford Forrest practically stomped through my back yard while riding toward Rome, GA. What's odd about this is that most people from that area are only aware of Emma Sansom and her role. She was the brave 16-year-old girl who kept Forrest and his Calvary on the heels of Streight and his Mule Brigade. Most of us grew up seeing that statue of Emma Sansom right on the edge of the Coosa River Bridge at the end of Broad Street. This mislead me for years to believe it was the Coosa she helped Forrest cross - it was actually Black Creek that she helped him cross. As a teenager, I would go hunting and see "John Wisdom Trail" signs on old rural roads. For some reason... I never thought to ask, "Who is John Wisdom?" Of course all this was before the Internet. Now I know that John Wisdom is the "Paul Revere of the South" and rode farther, faster and longer than Paul Revere actually did. These are just a few of the interesting elements of Streight's Raid. A Google search sparked my curiosity and led me to this book. This is the only comprehensive work on Streight's Raid. Simply put, this story sells itself. Streight was a righteous and decent man who believed in his cause. Forrest was noble and brilliant... who also believed in his cause. I have read far too few books on the Civil War to offer a serious book review, but I will give you a few thoughts.

I feel as though it was a fair representation of both Union and Confederate point of views. The acute attention to detail and first hand accounts were beneficial to the storyline. I am not an avid reader of military battles, so this next comment should be taken with a grain of salt. I found some portions of the book to be a little confusing. On more than one occasion, I had to back up a page and read it again. Someone more educated in regard to the Civil War might have zipped through these sections with ease. This is the only reason I subtracted a star from the review. I strongly suggest this book to anyone who is a "Civil War Buff". If this were a movie, no one would believe it was non-fiction.

Robert L. Willett conducted his own raid into previously uninhabited territory, and for this I commend him. There were no major battles fought in Alabama during the Civil War. Maybe it is for this reason that Streight's Raid is rarely written about. Maybe it's because the outcome of Streight's Raid somewhat glorifies Nathan Bedford Forrest. It may be too taboo in today's politically correct environment to glorify the founder of the Ku Klux Klan - whose military tactics were admired and studied by Nazi General Erwin Rommel. The significance of Forrest's "victory" is strongly debated. Could this be the most overlooked raid of the Civil War? Not anymore...

As a new member to the Old Catholic Church
and a future seminarian i found this book
very helpful i think Bishop Queen did a great
job .

Perhaps the strongest aspect in favour of this text is that it is a book on American Old Catholicism by an American Old Catholic. So many texts about the Old Catholics, American and otherwise, are written by outsiders, who bring the biased lenses of their contexts and communities with them. Sometimes these biases are subtle and unintended, but sometimes they are quite deliberate. Needless to say, those who write from the inside similarly write with bias; in the case of Old Catholicism, there is still a long way to go to achieve a parity in sources that could approximate objectivity.

That being said, this text does strive for some degree of objectivity. There are few texts available on Old Catholicism; it is an obscure-enough denomination and topic that books go out of print very quickly. Also, there are many varieties of Old Catholicism (and arguments as to the validity of the claim 'Old Catholic' by many from many). It is easy to get lost in the fray, and even the most able historian and researcher will find clarity an elusive goal.

Andre Queen is not an historian by profession or training, nor is he a writer. He is, however, bishop of a jurisdiction within American Old Catholicism, based in Chicago, and has various other titles and affiliations that have given him a reputation as a good source of information. Queen made effort to seek the counsel of other leaders in various jurisdictions as he compiled this text, so there was an element of collaboration in the process.

In some ways, this book is a compilation, and Queen would be in some respects more aptly described as the editor and compiler rather than the author. This, of course, is in keeping with the methodology of those who have a care for tradition and history - re-inventing the wheel is not necessary. For example, the longest chapter (comprising almost one-third of the entire text) is a model catechism, reprinted with permission from the catechism of the jurisdiction of the Old Catholic Church of America (James Bostwick, archbishop). Not all Old Catholic jurisdictions follow this catechism, and it is not intended to serve here as a dogmatic imposition, but rather as a paradigm for exploration.

The first several chapters give a brief history of the development of Old Catholicism in Europe (which has several strands), together with the text of important historical documents, and the transference of Old Catholicism into North America, a trek that has not been without incident, intrigue, and the occasional unfortunate occurrence. As a history, it suffers a bit from lack of a narrative framework; it is more like a patch-work quilt (made of documents, principles and brief biographies) that tells a story than a seamless narrative. For those not already acquainted to some degree with the history, it is easy to get lost. Perhaps in a future edition, this will be addressed.

The concluding chapters, 'Why Eastern and Western Expressions Combine in American Old Catholicism' and 'Yesterday's Tomorrow, Today', bring up important points that beg for further development. They address questions that most likely will be ongoing concerns, but further work on these issues would be appreciated.

There are three appendices, which deal with more obscure points (one an essay on married clergy, and two biographical/autobiographical pieces on figures of prominence in the movement). These are not really for the uninitiated - the essay on marriage assumes a familiarity with historical theology and church practice (and some degree of canon law); the other two appendices are more accessible. In particular, a reading of the appendix dealing with Archbishop Vilatte, side-by-side with that out of another text, Episcopi Vagantes, shows the trouble in dealing with Old Catholic history, and how apparent bias can be.

One minor criticism is that, in a day of computers with spell-check and grammar check, there are a few more typographical errors that one would hope; alas, in this day of self-editing even for major publishing houses, the primarily error-free text is becoming a vanishing species. Again, should there be a future edition, perhaps these will be corrected.

With the advent of lightning publishing and print-on-demand, texts such as this can remain available for longer periods of time, which is a blessing, given that in circles drawn as the Old Catholic circles are, it takes time to disseminate the information regarding the text's availability. There is not as yet a tradition of scholarship and publication in the Old Catholic world (European, North American or otherwise); in that instance, most any book is a blessing. This book represents another step in the direction of self-study and self-proclamation by the Old Catholics of their own community and beliefs. Imagine a world in which the only available texts about the Anglican, Presbyterian or Lutheran communions were written by Roman Catholic scholars, or the only texts available on Roman Catholicism were written by Eastern Orthodox scholars - one can begin to appreciate the difficulty of study of the subject.

This book strives to put Old Catholicism in the best possible light - a worthy goal, and one that any leader such as Queen would try to do. However, space should be made for the frank admission of the difficulties in Old Catholic history that Old Catholics have caused for themselves; this is brought up implicitly in some of the text, but never specifically addressed. Future editions might develop this theme, so as to not be subject to the charge of not facing our own origins.

For those interested in Old Catholicism, this is a valuable resource. It should be required of clergy and lay leaders of every jurisdiction in Old and Independent Catholicism; even the areas of disagreement can yield insight, and issues of difference made more explicit can aid in mutual cooperation. One hopes for further developments of this sort among the Old and Independent Catholic communities.

I have read many, many publications about the Old Catholic Church in America, this book by far is the most comprehensive.

Truly a credit to the Old Catholics in America.

A must read for anyone interested in religious history in America.

Well worth the price for those who want information, not scare hype from those pushing the fringe element buttons. I have personally verified much of the information in this book. If you want to learn more of who is really in control of our lives and future, buy and read this book.

Why then did I not give it 5 stars¿?Bill Still is one of the few authors who is respected and is qualified to complain about the conduct of the FED and ultimately its owners... it just seems to me that if I was him the 'new world order' thing would have to be left ouf .... it does two things in my eye... draws in moronic conspiracy nuts who have no ability to benefit our country due to their level of paranoia (you can speak your version of the truth without being lame and paranoid about it). A lot of these guys just lay around all day and complain much like churchgoers who pray 24/7 but dont DO anything for themselves....The second reason is when I see the conspiratorial vocab in a book title I am often inclined to pass it up and I feel that many 'professionals' would tend to agree. Part of the problem with exposing the FED is having 'credible' teachers ..credible in the eyes of the target student. Other than that... the material itself is beautifully laid out for the reader to come to his own conclusions. Bill Still, Michael Collins, and Tom Schauf are true men of character and their literature speaks for itself (you can search the net on these names because i cant post links) In addition to learning the workings of the Fed however I subscribe to the belief that one must also learn to play within the lines to support himself --- books such as Path of Least Resistance,Six Thinking Hats,Think & Grow Rich,Simple Steps to Impossible Dreams, and Rich Dad Poor Dad provide some much needed financial fluency.

Still's book will provide the reader with a thorough educational view of the history of money, the birth of the Federal Reserve bank, and the beginning of the privatization of the United Stated financial and political institutions. This is not a book about conspiracy, but a book about facts and the legitimization process of the elitist power.
It's an expose worth buying and reading...

CalvaryChapels has been an "underground" church for over 25 years now - an alternative for the typical lifeless church down the street. Now someone has studied this phenomenon to see why it continues to grow and attract more people (often from non-religious backgrounds). The same for Vineyards & HopeChapels (which both have intersecting histories with CalvaryChapel). The personal stories are touching and fascinating, The research is exhaustive if not exhausting. The author belongs to a mainline church and periodically shows his amazement at these new church movements. They were all built on simplicity of faith, by those whose lives were radically changed by Jesus Christ (often people who would be the last ones you would expect). A little too much psychology & sociology throughout but the author is a professor and the book is published by a university press.

This is an insightful exploration of the so-called third wave or new paradigm churches from a scholar who presents the information in a readable fashion. The author is an outsider, yet he provides a favorable account of these rapidly-growing, Pentecostal-type congregations that all originated in California. It is a great book for anyone who is interested in the contemporary Christian scene. It is filled with stories, keen observations, balanced analyses, and surveys on the movement.

An excellent introduction to some of the most interesting contemporary developments within American Christianity. For those with experience in traditional, mainline churches, what the book describes will seem strange but a growing number of new believers only know this type of church as what "church" is supposed to be. Since many new paradigm churches have large attendance, they are able to financially support the start of other new paradigm churches. Indeed, new paradigm churches may well become the new normal of church life in America.

For two in-depth case studies of a new paradigm church, see Gerardo Marti's A Mosaic of Believers: Diversity and Innovation in a Multiethnic Church and also his book Hollywood Faith: Holiness, Prosperity, and Ambition in a Los Angeles Church.

This book gives excellent examples of what you will face during the real test. It is a good guideline to show how you are doing in terms of preparation. It gave me great confidence which I desperately needed to do well on this test

its a fair source of basic concepts, but lacks the true reflection of standard of difficulty of boards.if you are a foreign medical graduate and have time it's much better to use NMS BOARD SIMULATOR SERIES.

I thought this book was a great review of Step 1 material. Has 1,000 questions with pretty good answer explanations.

I would not recommend using this as your only source of questions. However, it is a good question source for rapid review of a lot of information. You can get through the questions rather quickly. Offers a nice change of pace from the NMS series or Board Review Series (which tend to bog you down with long, very detailed answers requiring intense attention).

Highly recommend as an additional source of questions.

P.S. Remember, the best way to score high on Step 1 is QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS!!!

Charles Durrett's Senior Cohousing book will help lead us into the next 17 years as an estimated 75 million Baby Boomers head into retirement. It only makes sense that the generation that brought social and environmental awareness to the fore would be searching for a sustainable, suportive, self-managed community housing solution for their later years, and Durrett has outlined in detail how - and why - to go about it.

The stories and wisdom are from Denmark, where multigenerational cohousing began over 30 years ago. Since that time, cohousing has translated very successfully to over a dozen countries around the world, including over 90 completed neighborhoods in North America alone. With 20 out of the last 25 cohousing starts in Denmark being senior projects, we can only assume that Senior Cohousing on the rest of the planet will be as big - if not bigger - a hit.

Durrett has given us clear and useful intruction in Senior Cohousing for how to go about creating a Senior Cohousing neighborhood, from gathering other interested parties to finding land, hiring the design and development professionals and building a cohesive community. The step-by-step chapters are interlaced with impotant and interesting sidebars, illustrations and photographs.

The spirit of the book is both informative and fun. The candid photos, quotes and anecdotes drive home the glee with which these Elders are taking charge of their lives. Neighbors work and play together, share frequent meals, dance, bicycle, walk, and create poetry and art. After reading Senior Cohousing, for probably the first time in my life, I thought getting older might actually be a hoot.

At last, here is a guidebook to a new way of aging for older Americans - a housing solution that at once addresses the need for privacy and for community; provides a net of security and mutual care without the institutional restrictions of assisted living; is environmentally friendly - and most importantly, is planned, designed, and built by the residents themselves.

Cohousing got its start in Europe and has been successfully translated to America. In a cohousing community, each household has its own, stand-alone private dwelling, which is smaller than the traditional single-family home. These private homes are clustered around a common house which provides the amenities that are often wastefully duplicated in traditional American housing. The layout of the homes and the entire community provides plenty of privacy while affording opportunities for as much social interaction as the residents desire.

The key to cohousing is that it is planned and built by the people who intend to live there, so the sense of community begins to develop during the planning process as interested participants winnow themselves down to a core group that is committed to building together, on a site they have chosen together, with a development program that they have evolved together through a consensus process.

Senior cohousing is the logical extension of the cohousing idea. Many senior cohousing communities already exist in Denmark, where the author, Charles Durrett, traveled extensively and interviewed community residents. In the United States Durrett and his wife, Katie McCamant, are the principals of The Cohousing Company, an architectural firm that specializes in facilitating the development of cohousing. Their previous book, Cohousing: A Contemporary Way of Housing Ourselves, pioneered the cohousing movement in America.

Senior CoHousing is an inspiring and practical guidebook to help older Americans get started organizing and planning a cohousing community. It draws upon the author's extensive experience in developing cohousing in the United States, and the shared experience of elders in Denmark who have been living in senior cohousing communities for years. Filled with inspiring photographs and helpful graphics, the book presents the nuts-and-bolts considerations that go into planning a senior cohousing community. For many Americans over 50, this book may be the first step toward creating a way of living out the final stages of life in a rewarding, stimulating, supportive environment, where one's choices find expression in a neighborhood of like-minded people.

If you are considering alternatives to aging in isolation or retiring to a gated golf course community, read this book. Senior cohousing is becoming the fastest growing segment of the intentional community movement. This book offers both how-to advice and the social rationale for aging in community.

This book states rather accurately the reasons, events and the logic for the establishment of the cold war and our present emphasis on our Military Industrial Complex. This was a turning point in American history. Supporters of the conservative type will deny the accuracy of Mr. Yergin's scenario and those who lean more to the left will interpret it as a rather obvious statement of fact.
I think that the book is more than accurate. In fact I would say that the book is a little too conservative and that the truth I would find even further to the left. And if we look at our present day politics we will see that it is deja vu all over again. In fact in today's world it does seem that even Stalinist Russia's view of the U.S. is more accurate than most of us would have liked to believe.

Is this book a 'classic'? If it isn't then I don't know what would qualify for the name. A breath of fresh air when it was first released, it quite nicely debunked the existing interpretations of Liberal National, New Left and (rather fratricidally) the earlier Realist historians. It is meticulously researched and easy to read - it deserves a place on the shelf of every person with an interest in the international affairs of the 20th century, especially as it is now within the price range of most buyers.

. . . but still worth a Cold War student's time for its wide-ranging source material, and representative perspective.

Yergin's book is long on pointed inference and short on rational argument. He makes his points primarily by choosing his adjectives carefully. The principal impression one is left with is that American policy started the Cold War by misinterpreting Stalin after FDR's demise, and hence sentenced the United States to managing, in perpetuum, a "national security state." (FDR, by contrast, dealt with Stalin as one great power actor to another, unburdened by the "messianism" and "Wilsonian utopianism" with which American foreign policy is so often tagged.)

Certainly the proximate origin of the Cold War lay in the fact that the United States was uneasy with Stalin occupying all of eastern Europe, and objected directly to his attempts to set up, through armed force, Communist regimes in Iran, Turkey, and Greece. Yergin implies that because Stalin approached these efforts methodically and carefully, and drew back when confronted, Truman overreacted in accusing him of trying to take over too much of Europe and Asia. Here Yergin suffers a common myopia among Cold War analysts: an apparent inability to see the link between American pushback, or lack of it, and how far the Soviets chose to go. He prefers to interpret both the US and the USSR as actors motivated mainly by confused internal urges, or so one gathers from the profusion of telling adjectives in his narrative.

Yergin does do the signal service of charting America's course from a nation that pursued "interests," as in the pre-WWII era, to one that based its fundamental posture in the world on permanently-existing "threats." At least one reviewer (Edward M. Luttwak, in "The Train of History," Commentary, August 1977) considers Yergin's conclusions here vacuous and overblown, observing that a "national security state" is something every state is, by definition. But Yergin's contribution is really in pointing out that American policy was at one time made relatively free of that European-style premise; it was the menace of Soviet expansionism and the Cold War that forced us to adopt it. (John Lewis Gaddis' 1982 book, Strategies of Containment, has a much better theoretical discussion of the distinction between basing national policy on interests, and basing it first and foremost on threats.)

Luttwak's review of this book is superb, if you can get your hands on it. (It's collected in his 1980 book Strategy and Politics.) He takes Yergin to task rather severely for including a large amount of "human-interest" material, such as the weather and ceremonial arrangements when FDR arrived at Yalta; and ultimately describes the book as "free of any trace of genuine scholarship." I would give Yergin a little slack on the human-interest front, however. I wouldn't have missed for the world his summary on page 47 of the following exchange between Mrs. Robert Taft and Senator Arthur Vandenberg, then the leading Republican foreign policy spokesman in the Senate:

"Once, urged on by her husband, Mrs. Robert Taft tried to "butter Van up" at a dinner party, but was forced to report that she found the task impossible - `he buttered himself so thoroughly that I really couldn't find a single ungreased spot.' "

Anecdote, and 100 pages of notes and bibliography, make Yergin's book worth your time.

Successful Self-Publishing: From Children's Author to Independent Publisher acts as a resource for those looking into self-publishing their own book. The material in this book is directed primarily towards print publication of works, as opposed to a more generalized look at both books and ebooks. Moreover, the author focuses a good deal of attention on using Print on Demand (POD) publishers. Thus, the information contained in this book will be of particular interest to those individuals new to self-publishing and those writers wanting to publish a single book as well as those authors looking to reduce costs and time required to take a book from idea to print.

There were a number of sections in this book that I thought were particularly of note. One section discussed the various reasons for self-publishing. I felt this section was particularly enlightening as there were a number of reasons on this list that I hadn't even considered.

Two other sections of note were the sections on subsidy publishing and POD publishing. These sections were quite detailed, showing the pros and cons of these publishing methods and also giving the reader a lot of tips on the questions he or she should ask when considering these services.

I've read LaVora Perry's book, Successful Self Publishing, and really obtained some useful tips when publishing my book. I think the layout of the book is excellent for a self-published book and it provides a portion of every bit of information you would need when self-publishing. If the information is limited, then she provides a resource on where to obtain it, but I only ran into that maybe twice and even so, it was still a helpful piece of information. I really thought that the information was very valuable and I'm going to add the book link to my website! Just one question, will there be another edition?

In the publishing world, more and more authors are taking the self-publishing route. Many authors choose this method of publishing because they've been rejected by mainstream publishers, want to control their writing projects from beginning to end, or even want to prove their worth to traditional publishers in hopes of signing a contract. In M. LaVora Perry's new book "Successful Self-Publishing," the Cleveland author of "Wu-lung & I-lung" sheds light on the dos and don'ts of publishing your own book.

"Successful Self-Publishing" is loaded with helpful advice on many aspects of self-publishing, including information on the various forms of non-traditional publishing, finding a distributor, and how to market your book once it's printed. The book also contains sample press releases, a list of reviewers from which to choose, and tons of information on how to publish a book from start to finish.

What makes the book unique is how the author shares her own self-publishing and subsidy publishing experiences along with the helpful advice she gives to the reader causing the book to serve as part desk reference, part motivational guide. It's obvious that the author truly cares about the readers' success, and she wants to use her experience as a children's book author to help them succeed.

There are only a couple of minor problems with the book. One is that it is rather short and contains only a portion of the information that other books on the same subject contain. The other is the fact that the book gives information on the legal aspect of publishing but never advices the reader to seek a lawyer's advice. Even with those minor flaws, anyone looking to gain the inside track on how to self-publish should still run out and pick up this no nonsense book. Trust me when I say you will learn a lot about the publishing world, and the money spent will be paid back several times over.