error Books

The book is broken up into three sections, the second a section entitled "Double Exposures," a novel form of poetry in which each poem may be read three different ways to get three different meanings. Besides the second section, most of the poems are not intertwined by plot or theme-characters change from poem to poem, however, Greg Williamson seems to be the running thread that connects each poem. In "Origami," he even throws in his name, `"No really, Mr. Greg!"' Others appear to be his opinions and observations on life, for example "Bodies of Water," where he responds to a quote by Seamus Heaney that says, "Glimmerings are what the soul's composed of," with "Yes, but the body is made of water...." "The Dark Days" represents another form of his poems which leans toward reflection, "We should have seen it coming back In June: seeds of unrest..." One of my personal favorites was "Riddles," where Williamson pokes fun at this form of literature, coming up with twelve riddles and twelve sets of five answers that are all probable solutions. But by far the best part of this book was section two, the "Double Exposures." Williamson writes these with such grace and agility-two separate poems that somehow when the lines are alternately linked, fit together and make sense. The endings are especially ingenious-he turns "Swept by the tide, while the sun's filigree Embellishes an opalescent sea." into "...while the sun's filigree Catching the hostess's eye in this tableau Embellishes an opalescent sea Of carefree faces, taken years ago." Reading the second version, one would never assume the "sea" is an actual body of water, yet that is exactly what it is in the first version. It is these ingenious twists Williamson throws at us that makes the middle section of the book so fun to read. However, even if you are not interested in this type of double-poem, the first and last sections provide an ample amount of poems that appear more `normal' in shape and form. Williamson's tone throughout the book varies, but I found myself laughing out loud to many of his poems, for example, "The Life and Times of Wile E. Coyote, Super Genius," alluding to the television cartoon, where he toasts the coyote for his intellect and quirky inventions, and "The Top Priority," where he questions the English language, "If grocery stores supply a pre-sliced roll, And sliced is sliced, pre-sliced is what? Well, whole." I recommend this book to anyone with a sense of humor or as a gift to anyone who would enjoy a fun twist on poetry.

Greg Williamson's book, "Errors in the Script," is evidence that legendary poets can come at all points in history, even now. Williamson's poems are destined to be classics in the years to come.
Williason's use of puns is quite extensive. His poems are both humorous and serious and somehow reflect the life of a poet. "Errors in the Script" was highly enjoyable because of it's evasive style. The poetry in all three sections of the book can never be pinned down with one description of it's style.
Williamson is, by trade, a true poet. He is a poetry machine capable of producing and reproducing ideas and stories in different fashions. Whether in free verse, riddles, or a strict rhyme scheme, the poetry is exquisite. Sometimes Titles in the book can be misleading, but upon deeper reading one can find serious meaning to all of Williamson's poetry. He is a poetry craftsman,writing in forms that have never been written in before. The Creative style of the book always seem to have multiple meanings and/or answers to all questions raised.
In the section of the book titled Double Exposures, the author skillfully writes 26 frames of poetry that can be read in three differnet ways. The playfulness of one of the three ways may turn in to a much more serious expression as in "Billboard with Woman in Mirror." Williamson uses puns like the word fag to describe both a cigarette butt and a drag queen. He gets personal in the end of that poem and tells the reader two lies or two truths or maybe one of each. If you like that sort of mysterious poetry meaning "Errors in the Script" is definitely a must read book.
Lastly, these poems are excellent reads because they prompt the reader to think. Williamson not only tells the stories, he asks readers what the stories he writes about mean to them by asking and answering what poetry and life is to him. Genius, pure Genius.

i hate to be the voice of dissension, but i wasn't quite as taken by williamson's work as others are. it's nice to see humor used in poetry, but williamson has a tendency to beat the joke to death. half the time i wished he had cut the poem in half. take "origami" for example. he went on with a list for about 30 lines. by the time i got to the end, all i could think about was how glad i was it was over. it's stopped being amusing long ago. and he does this in several other poems. and many times i got the feeling he was being clever for the sake of being clever. i say kudos. you're clever. but that's the first and third section. the middle section, double exposures, is brilliant. it's what makes this book worthwhile. it's the reason i gave him such a high rating. this form that, if i'm not mistaken, he created is one that has to be pretty difficult. writing two poems that mesh together well enough to create a third poem is a level of skill that few poets will ever reach. and most of the double exposures are phenomenal. there are a few that don't work quite as well, but they still work. this is a book to get because of the double exposures. they are a delight to read.

This collection of poems is united under the theme of "Errors" which comes through in very interesting, and often very amusing ways. Williamson says in one of his poems, "They ask what I can make. `I make mistakes.'"
Found in the second section of the book, Williamson's "Double Exposures" was fascinating for its completely new dualistic style. I applaud his creativity and skill for the idea of describing a double exposed photograph image through a poem made out of two parts; where each part composes half of a whole poem, or image, and yet where each may stand alone and be read separately without appearing nonsensical. These double exposures fit into the theme of "Errors" in that they were made "accidentally." The poem "Origami" also supports the theme of Errors well; it explores the multiple representations a sheet of paper may take on, from a bed sheet to the mainsail of the Pequod, to a snowball when crumpled at the end of the poem.
Williamson continues to play on words and meanings in his poem entitled "Riddles" which consists of twelve three-lined poems which each represent a riddle with multiple answers, all of which are provided on an "Answer sheet." The entire collection possesses this similar playful tone to it, and contains an infectious sense of amazement and excitement in the hidden meanings of the written word. Readers that enjoy riddles and puns will be enthralled with Willamson's manipulation of words throughout his poems.
In the other sections of the book, ambiguities in language and meaning are further explored in "Top Priority" and in the more serious, darkly humorous, "The Muse Addresses the Poet (and getteth alle up in hys face)" which explores the troubles encountered in modern day poetry writing. We are even taken into the life of a man with astigmatism, the disease of seeing double, in the poem "Binocular Diplopia."
Most of the poems also contain allusions to classic works such as Milton's "Paradise Lost" or Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales." There are multiple implications to Hardy's "Darkling Thrush" in Williamson's "The Mockingbird Is Imitating Life." So, for prolific readers, these allusions make the poetry rich through deeper layers of meaning. However, the reader need not have any knowledge or background in poetry or the classics to enjoy this collection since the style used is one that appeals to the general public with its modern themes and new poetic forms. The humor, wit, and innovative writing techniques found in this book are what make it my favorite collection of contemporary poetry to date.

Williamson may well be the most prodigiously gifted young poet to come along since Wilbur, Hecht and Justice appeared around 1950. All these masters have eloquently praised his work; and if we fifty-somethings haven't said much, maybe we're too flumoxed by how damn good he is. Errors in the Script is a substantially better book than The Silent Partner, which was superb. The first third is comprised of big, solid poems which are advances on his earlier triumphs. My two favorites are Origami and Kites at the Washington Monument. The second third is a tour de force, twenty-six Double Exposures. Each poem is three poems, two in heroic couplets, and the third in quatrains. The left and right-hand poems interleave like fingers in hands folded in prayer to form the third, and the third is far greater than the sum of the parts. The same is true of the entire work, an extended meditation on life, on consciousness and perception. The final section of the book is perhaps a little too hip, too flip, for my codgerly taste, though mall-crawlers half my age may prize it above the rest. Anyone seriously interested in the present and future of poetry owes it to her or himself to acquire this terrific collection.

This is a great play, When you're reading it it feels more like you're watching a documentry , rather than a play that someone has created. I think the writers have done a great job in giving us an inside look into being a prisoner or a loved one of a human being on death row. I think this is a really brave play and it has something to say. However if you're after something upbeat, this is not the play to read.

whereas Bush killed more in Texas, with Al GOnzo's ineffectual five minutes "clemency" rubber stamp reviews, than any other governor in history since Vlad the Impaler.

This important play for today tells us in the condemned innocents' own words why we must cease being a rogue nation and rejoin the community of civilized nations by outlawing capital punishment. Look at the short list of nations which still practice the barbarism which is the death penalty, and decide which list you stand with.

Read the words of these innocents driven mad by the fatal, inexorable and casual uncaring injustice of our system.

What purpose has the death penalty? It is no deterrrent. We have known that since James Joyce outlined the objections in his Episode Twelve of Ulysses. The Catholic Church continually condemns its immorality and injustice as a pro-life issue. Yet we kill on. Why?

Truth is a very scary thing but it's something we should all know. I went into it knowing the of the horror that is present today and it was still a very touching story. (Probably due to the personal feel it swelled with) For those who aren't aware of the injustice that is so prominent, this would be groundbreaking. It's an amazing play and personally, I think it's better than "I AM MY OWN WIFE".

I first SAW this play at the Edinburgh Festival. It is immensely powerful. It gives the story, in their own words,of a number of people who have been unjustly or erroneously accused of crimes and sentenced to death in the USA, and have spent time, sometimes decades, on Death Row. These people were eventually found innocent, but the play also has much to say about the justice system, prison conditions, and human courage and cowardice.The humour, resilience and lack of bitterness is stunning. My copy is now being passed round on Death Row in Ohio.

This play is very well written. The story just makes you know what people's lives are like after they are convicted of a crime that they never commited. If you want something real and new than this play is for you! This play is very creative and well thought out for the viewer,reader, and actor to enjoy.

I first read this in surgical residency (on the west coast at a place very much like Pacific Hospital) in the 1980's and found his thesis very insightful. It was the first time anyone talked systematically about medical errors. Residency training was changing even then, and must be very different now-I practice in a rural area far from the ivory towers-but despite being technically very innovative, surgery is a very conservative field. I like to believe the vigilance and the sense of personal responsibility to one's surgical patients remains as strong. My thinking about errors has evolved, but the gut feeling of personal responsibility for error instilled 20 years ago in residency, is as much a habit as the rituals of sterile technique. This book is a must for anyone wishing to understand medical errors and how to reduce them.

This book gives an astounding and unprecedented look into the social structure of the surgeon. After graduation from medical school, I spent 7 years in residency and another 13 years teaching surgery to residents. This book gives a sensitive and accurate description of the ethos of surgery and shows why being a surgeon is who someone "is" and not what someone "does".

This book is required reading at my ENT residency, for good reason. Bosk applies a somewhat technical (for me) sociological paradigm to a surgical residency, focusing on the relationships between faculty and residents. Again and again the issues that he so clearly elucidated come up throughout my residency. It is doubtfully of use to non-physicians, but I highly recommend it if you are beginning residency.

While other reviewers focus on how Bosk examines medical ethics, as a researcher focusing on organizational behavior and quality, I find this a fascinating study of two broader topics. First, Bosk presents a sociological taxonomy of error that anticipates later work on human error (Reason's "Human Error," Perrow's "Normal Accidents"). Second, his discussion of the process of professional socialization is a must read for anyone doing work on management and the professions.

As a medical student at the University of Chicago, Forgive and Remember helped shape my view of what good, caring physicians need to do when policing their own. I am currently on the quality assurance committees at three hospitals where I practice. I am buying several copies of Forgive and Remember for my committee colleagues who have not read this book.

The temptations of money over our patient's best interest, the medical malpractice environment, and the difficulties of practicing medicine in the era of managed care have made it diffuclt for well intentioned physicians to make a difference in the quality of care provided in our communities. I think this book will help me and my colleagues fufill the responsibilities the hospitals and our commununities have given us.

I truly believe all health care providers, attorneys involved with medical malpractice cases, and people interested in the delivery of healthcare need to read this book. It brings into perspective how all health care providers, from surgeons to orderlies, are human and make mistakes. It also shows how some mistakes are hard to forgive. As physicians we have to take this into account while assuring we always keep the interest of all patients, our own and those of other physicians, are well looked after.

I hope that in my local community all people will trust that their health care providers, despite the outcome of their care, did a good, competent job. Everyone alive, including physicians and our families, will someday become a patient.

In life it is important for all of us to learn from our mistakes.

This book is phenomenal. Not only in its ironic ability to tell these tales, but for also revealing the clear errors that the judicial system cranks out. Anyone interested in those who are falsely convicted should check out www.wm3.org.

Medium: Book
ISBN: 1-884167-18-7
Book Type: Hardcover with Jacket
Pages: 112 pages, 104 4-color illustrations
Size: 12.5 x 10 inches
Item #: 11430
Name: The Innocents
About this book...
This compelling book of photographs and interviews with the wrongfully convicted by Taryn Simon includes commentary and case profiles by Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck. The failings of the criminal justice system and the use of the death penalty in this country are currently under close scrutiny and an important topic of public debate. The images and voices of The Innocents mark this historic turning point in America.

The Innocence Project, founded by leading civil rights attorneys Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck, is responsible for most of the postconviction DNA exonerations in the United States today, many of which are included in this book. On the ten-year anniversary of its founding, the Project continues to free the innocent, striving to transform criminal justice into a more equitable and reliable system.

Photographer Taryn Simon brings us face-to-face with individuals falsely accused and convicted. While mugshots and photoarrays are used to condemn and imprison these innocents, Simon has turned the camera around to document these victims of mistaken identity and perverted justice. Simon photographed the wrongfully convicted at locations that were crucial in these legal cases: the scene of misindentification, the scene of arrest, the alibi location, or the scene of the crime. Through Simon's interviews with each, the men and women in this book confront the paradox of innocence and imprisonment, the inability to recover the years stolen from them, and the states' unconscionable refusal to compensate them or ease their traumatic transition to civilian life.

Jerry Layne Rogers, Sr. -- wrongfully convicted and innocent. From 1989 - 1992, I was his investigator at CCR.

Mr. Rogers' case consisted in 1992 of at least 80 boxes of documents, from court files, prosecutor and law enforcement files, trial and evidentiary hearing transcripts, etc. Mr. Rogers's case was the largest and most complicated that CCR [The Office of Capital Collateral Representative -- a state agency in the judicial branch of Florida government] has ever represented that I am aware of.

The second largest and most complicated was that of Mr. Gerald Stano, whose lead attorney during most of the development of his case was Mark E. Olive.

In 1995, Mr. Rogers began receiving pro bono representation from the Washington, D.C. law firm Covington and Burling. The result was an unanimous Florida Supreme Court (FSC) 26 page opinion ordering a new trial in Mr. Rogers' case due primarily to prosecutorial misconduct, in particular Brady v. Maryland violations.

To read the opinion, go to the FSC website, then at "Public Information", to the recent opinions, to the year 2001, then toward the bottom at February 15, 2001, one will find the FSC opinion.

During the summer of 2002, Mr. Rogers was re-convicted, however sentenced to life upon the jury recommendation. Now twice Mr. Rogers has been wrongfully convicted.

In 2004, the Florida 5th District Court of Appeal denied relief. The FSC declined to accept jurisdiction and thus denied the petition for review.

Mr. Rogers' case is pending Federal review.




For those interested in reading the narrowly decided by four to three vote Florida Supreme Court opinions regarding two more death sentenced persons whose innocence is an authentic issue, please go to the FSC website, then go to the recent opinions, then chose the correct year and scroll down to the following two cases:

Roy Swafford: April 18, 2002

Peter Ventura: May 24, 2001


Additionally, the issue in the below cases is DNA testing that proves that Roy Swafford did not rape Brenda Rucker:

Roy Swafford: March 26, 2004 Case Nos. SC03.931 and SC03.1153

"The Innocents" is a jarring photo documentation of the issues raised by the scores of false convictions which have been overturned, primarily as a result of DNA evidence. As with Barry Scheck's book, "Actual Innocence", one of the most disturbing conclusions is that there are many more falsely-convicted individuals who never will be cleared because their alleged crimes did not leave DNA evidence behind.

The pictures in this book put a human face to the exonerated. The simple, direct accompanying text and quotes from the former prisoners tell the story over and over. I highly recommend this book in conjunction with Actual Innocence which discusses the causes of false convictions and attempts to articulate solutions to this ongoing problem with our legal system (even though it is one of the best legal systems in the world).

There are emerging artists whose work tends to emphasize style over substance, of which there are many (Notable examples include Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY artist Anissa Mack, perhaps best known for her performance piece "Pies for a Passerby" and most, though not all, of the emerging artists represented in the recent Brooklyn Museum exhibition "Open House: Working in Brooklyn".). And then there are those who can produce stylishly beautiful work, and make profound statements about culture, society, etc. through their art. Fellow Brunonian Taryn Simon - she studied photography primarily at the Rhode Island School of Design, widely regarded as America's premier art school, while still an undergraduate at Brown - is unquestionably one of these, with a distinctive documentary style which harkens back to Walker Evans's sympathetic black and white photographic portrayals of people in Depression-era America. However, here Simon has worked deliberately in color, using the conventions of commercial fashion photography to create memorable images. Hers is a splendid, mature body of work, replete with much empathy for her subjects; former convicts who were falsely accused and convicted. Each photograph is accompanied with commentary from the two attorneys in charge of the Innocence Project, Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld. Through their Innocence Project, attorneys Scheck and Neufeld have freed scores of people who were wrongly convicted. Simon received a Guggenheim Fellowship in Photography for this project; an award normally given to artists who are in mid-career or further along, not to an emerging artist. Simon's work has been exhibited at New York City's International Center of Photography and P. S. 1 Contemporary Art Center; an international tour of these photographs had its first stop at P. S. 1. As both a fellow alumnus of her college and a fellow photographer, I eagerly look forward to yet another impressive body of work from Ms. Simon.

Easy transaction, book in condition it was described and received it on time...would buy from seller again.

When someone reviews statistical information about human factors in air accidents, it is very easy to find that under the label "human factors" there are many different and heterogeneous things.

The real way to know what is the importance of human factors is an in-depth analysis of many accidents without accepting the generic "human factors" as an explanation. That is exactly what authors make with several accidents explaining beyond NTSB analysis why crew behaved in a way that, finally, drove to an accident.

The book shows a model of analysis and that is very useful for investigators or air safety experts in general. However, the application of that kind of analysis to many other accidents -all of them, if possible, instead of a few ones- should be extremely useful not only to avoid new accidents but to design new planes, new SOPs and new training models.

The conclusion we could extract is as follows: At this moment, we are not extracting all the possible knowledge from an accident. The book explains how to go further.

It reads like a thesis but is full of great analyses beyond the "official" accident reports. Most aircraft accidents are attributed to "pilot error." Here, the authors dissect the human factors in several accidents and delve into human fallibilities and technical traps which make us all prone to error.

The authors have applied insights from cognitive psychology to nineteen flight-crew-related accidents. In place of the dry narratives of accident reports, we are presented with compelling three-dimensional accounts in which pilots are routinely faced with time pressure, the need to make judgments under uncertainty, and rare but potentially lethal system failures. In examining each accident, the authors attempt to reconstruct the mindset of the pilots, and place the actions of the crew in the context of the flow of events. In contrast to other reviews of accidents, the authors avoid the phrase "the pilots should have...". Instead we are gently encouraged to understand how skilled and professional operators can come to make mistakes in circumstances that are unforgiving of error.

Through the lens of cognitive psychology, the aviation industry becomes a massive human performance laboratory, in which hapless operators are faced with situations and problems produced not by experimenters, but by the complexities of the system of which they are a part. The authors take pains to counter the common presumption that catastrophic accidents must somehow result from extreme acts of villainy or incompetence. In this book, we repeatedly see how accidents often arise from combinations of everyday problems and situations.

By the end of the book, some fascinating patterns begin to emerge. A surprising number of the accidents involved apparently simple slips and lapses. Additionally, the majority of accidents occurred on approach and landing, and most of the accident flights were running late. The failure to go-around from an un-stabilized approach is a common theme in the accident scenarios.

On a minor note, a few more illustrations and diagrams would have added some variety to the text, and more extensive quotations from cockpit voice recordings may have helped. Overall however, the book provides a useful compendium of case studies that will be of value to industry and academia. Airline training personnel in particular will find much that is useful in this book.

Out of approximately 10 million air carrier flights annually in the US, only about 50 involve a major accident. That may not sound like much, but those accidents consist of events like these: a Continental Airlines flight that landed without its landing gear deployed in Houston; an American Airlines flight that suffered loss of control at 16000 ft.; and another American Airlines flight that hit some trees while attempting to land, the culmination of a series of small, individually insignificant errors. These are some of the examples scrutinized in detail, drawn from a large population of accidents in which human error was a major factor. This book makes fascinating reading - providing pilots and aviation professionals with a new perspective on crew error, and the general public with a new way of looking at the whole aviation system and how safety issues are considered.

The authors dissect these accidents in a way that the airline industry has not attempted in great depth before. Rather than stopping at the facts and a conclusion of "crew error", they ask why highly skilled flight crews, with thousands of hours of flying experience, make mistakes and erroneous judgments with horrifying consequences. The common reaction after an accident is that the crew was not sufficiently skilled, otherwise they would not have made the error. The authors start with a different assumption: they assume that the crew was as good as any other crew that could have been chosen, and from that starting point, their illuminating analyses lead them to consider some very interesting psychological and operational factors that underlie these accidents.

To do this, the authors draw on their expertise on how the human brain works (memory systems and decision-making apparatus) and their complementary expertise on aviation and operations. The authors are all affiliated with NASA; two of the them are research psychologists, one of them was a major investigator with the primary transportation investigative arm of the government, the National Transportation & Safety Board, and all of them have extensive experience with aviation safety.

The book covers 19 accidents, devoting a chapter to each. Two additional chapters at the end provide statistics and a summary of the common themes and factors the authors uncover as contributing to these accidents, along with some prescription of possible countermeasures. When an airplane is involved in an accident, the National Transportation & Safety Board performs thorough investigations - these include interviews with the survivors, forensic evidence, the data from the black box, etc. The investigators produce a report that lays out the facts and their judgment of the causes of the accident.

The studies in this book take these reports as a starting point, and go down paths that the NTSB never ventures (their charter does not permit that). Each of the accident chapters is constructed to provide first a factual recount of the event and the NTSB conclusions. From here the authors identify the most significant events leading up to the accident, and for each event in turn, provide an analysis that mixes operational knowledge with cognitive functioning.

This is not a Michael Crichton thriller, but those familiar with aviation will easily be able to follow the details as they are stated in factual, non-judgmental manner, and will see into the deep causes of the events that led up to the final accident. Readers who are already familiar with aviation terminology will find the book easy to read (do you know what "LOFT" and "windshear" mean?). At the end, the very helpful glossary covers both aviation and cognitive psychology terms so that readers of all levels of industry expertise or interest can enjoy this useful study.

Y BASADA EN UN SECUESTRO REAL!
¿Te has imaginado alguna vez lo que seria estar totalmente en manos de criminales que no le dan a tu vida mas valor que el rescate que tu familia pueda pagar por ti...¿Si se asustan? ¿Si estan drogados ????

Asomate al infierno de este relato...!

DE AUTORES RENOMBRADOS !
Una novela bien escrita, pérfecta, con personajes vivos que llegan a contagiarte su amor, sus miedos...y su horrible destino !

QUE RESULTA ATERRADORA...
Me interesò tantìsimo que habrìa querido que no se me acabara tan pronto.
¡EXCELENTE!

DE LA VIDA REAL... Una novela MUY BIEN ESCRITA, RÀPIDA Y ANGUSTIOSA!
El desenlace es inesperado!

Unos delincuentes, que se equivocan y secuestran a un hombre joven y luchador...
Más no puedo contarles. Pero la historia de su cautiverio le pone a uno el pelo de punta ! El final es inesperado y toda la trama nos tiene agarrados, desde la primera hasta la última página !
No se la pierdan ! La recordarán siempre !
Es UN LIBRAZO !

This book is written by a courageous author with her own distinctive voice. It is unabashedly strong and assured as she unfolds a narrative of the lives of Muslims that are rarely ever told. Yet despite Moezzi's fiery commitment to her mission, she is also humble, quirky, funny, and endearingly flawed, making her storytelling more human and her dedication to activism more admirable. The stories she unravels so delicately all remain close to our hearts as the people she has interviewed each have unique stories of struggles, reconciliations, and battles. This book is a fantastic read and I can't recommend it enough.

War On Error, what an excellent and clever title. The book opens eyes to the reality that people are first of all human beings, and religion does not and should not contradict with their abilities, interests, qualifications, relationships, and culture. To me, the book stems from the author's heart. The misconceptions that she, and many other Muslims living in Western societies, have sought to speak out and disprove for years. I believe it is a very intelligent idea to write a book on true stories of twelve special and incredible Muslims. People who are American in many ways, but could be stigmatized by the society because of their religion. I see this book as a thesis that promotes inclusion in the multicultural society of America.

I'm generally wary of books dealing with religion as I find the writing too obtuse or the books themselves nothing more than thinly-veiled polemics. Yet I was drawn to Ms. Moezzi's book by the clever title and beautiful cover art and I'm glad I took the time to read it.

War on Error is a collection of 12 interviews with a variety of Muslims - from the non-practicing "cultural" Muslim to the hijab-wearing convert. The premise is simple - Islam is not a monolith - but yet unfortunately it's one that garners very little attention. As a Muslim myself, it saddens me that there exists a vast majority of people that need Ms. Moezzi's book to realize what to me is self-evident : Muslim-Americans are just like any other Americans. We do not think uniformly, we have varied experiences, sometimes we are nothing if not banal but ultimately (like the reviewer below me pointed out) we all share the same essential humanity and wish to lead peaceful lives. Ms. Moezzi elucidates this idea beautifully in her book. Her writing draws you in immediately - it's clear, engaging, and often witty. War on Error was a pleasure to read and I cannot recommend this book enough.

I can only speak for non-Muslims, but speak to you I will: you need to read this book. Although I like to keep abreast of current affairs, I tend to shy away from lengthy, dry nonfiction titles crammed with facts, which is why i loved this read.

The premise of this book is simple: it is a series of short, biographical vignettes that showcase an incredibly diverse and interesting collection of Muslim-Americans. The purpose? The vignettes show us that the vast majority of Muslim-Americans are not terrorists but normal people, normal Americans, just like the vast majority of Christians are not snake-handlers (and I am not equating snake handlers to terrorists). The author does it, however, in a much more effective manner than the preaching I have seen before on this issue: through example, she shows us. She makes us feel. The purpose of the book is also to remind everyone that no matter what race, group, religion, gender, culture or ethnicity to which one belongs, we are all possessed of the same elemental humanity, and should be treated as such -- and should treat others as such.

I can't say enough to recommend this book. The writing is simple yet elegant, easy to read yet resonant. It moved me. Read it.

I don't think I was able to breathe the whole time I read this book, which was okay, because I was able to read it all in almost just one sitting. The book was very involving and interesting, but I was nervous about reading another book claiming it was breaking stereotypes of American Muslims. Quite often, books of this sort only manage to hold onto the accepted "norm" of what both "typical" Muslims and non-Muslims think Islam should be and never begin to approach "outside of the box" writing. War on Error went inside, outside and around the proverbial box.

Melody Moezzi takes the reader on an unapologetic journey into an amalgamation of individual Muslims' spiritual and personal journeys and the author's experiences with those individuals. The result easily moves into the readers' conscious and drives one to consider how each story connects to one's own reality.

At the end, I kept having fantasies of War on Error as just Volume I of a series of profiles I could keep on reading for days. I expect this book to be just the beginning of a longer journey both for the author and the reader.

One of the biggest plagues in the martial arts world is the simple statement, "we do that." Most martial artists run on the assumption that what they do works and is effective either because of its roots or because of their instructor's impressive skill set. When a practitioner from another style points out a fundamental principle, the natural response from the student is to say, "we do that," based on the fact that they heard their instructor say it.

Unfortunately, most of what is taught as traditional martial arts has been watered down, with fundamentals removed or glazed over and patched with either speed or power. This book is an excellent attempt at making martial artists look at their own art from an objective standpoint to see if it really works, or if they have been victims of patching.

The physical examples given are based on Shotokan Karate, one of Tristan's primary arts (along with silat and iaijutsu). If the reader pays attention, however, he or she will find that the principles are the same regardless of the style and that they can then begin to fill in the holes in their practice that were previously covered by patching.

Overall, a very valuable addition to the library of any traditional martial artist!

I have to admit that I really enjoy not only reading and learning from books written by the author, but also they way he expresses himself in order to get his point across. Do I always agree with the things he says? Of course not, but even those things that I don't agree with are worth listening to and then deciding why the author reached the conclusion that he did concerning that particular subject.

In this book, the author devotes the entire book to looking at a lot of the basic techniques universal to most martial arts and a lot of the more common misconceptions that seem to exist concerning the effectiveness of a particular martial art or martial arts technique in a real life self-defense situation. Now I must give the author's kudos here for a statement made early on in this book that basically goes as follows, "Any martial art can be effective." Anything, and I do mean anything, can be effective if done correctly and applied properly under the right set of circumstances.

It this book worth the money to buy it and the time to read it? Well, if you want to improve your martial arts skill in whatever your chosen art is and if you want to be able to enhance your ability to defend yourself, then I would say yes, this book is worth your time and money. However, if you think that your art is the one and only and that you know everything there is to know about the martial arts then you are obviously wasting your time and money buying this book. As a matter of fact, you are even wasting your time reading this review.

Often times I feel that Marc has a jaded view of the martial arts and I guess a lot of this perception stems from the writings in his earlier books and the bad experiences he obviously has had concerning certain aspects of the martial arts, most notably, the act of kicking. Or perhaps I just seem to take his lack of concern for kicking more personally than I should because I am a strong advocate for it. Who knows, but it does open the door to a lot of potential philosophical discussions on the pros and cons of it.

This book and the writing style does seem out of the norm for one of Marc's books and I suppose that should be chalked up to the co-author of this book Mr. Tristan Sutrisno. I really enjoyed reading this book and am proud to put it on the shelf alongside Marc's other books.

As I end this particular review, I am reminded of the old Oriental saying that goes something like this, "How can you taste my tea if you don't first empty your cup." How can you experience that which others have to teach if you don't first open your mind?

Shawn Kovacich
Martial Artist/Author of the Achieving Kicking Excellence series.

I'd recommend this book for- people wondering if something is missing from their art, beginners, and teachers.

The information in highly useful to all 3. Of course, it goes without saying the first 2 groups will learn a great deal, so why recommend it for instructors? Easy. Even if you have a been taught a solid system, sometimes learning to discuss a topic in a different way will turn the light on for an individual that's struggling. I've borrowed some of the phraseology and terminology from the book and seen it give people a better understanding.

In addition, if you have students read this at the correct point in their training, it will save hours of explanation. This will give your students more time practicing what they're learning.

The vast majority of the information is not syle specific, but based on sound physiological principles that are useful regardless of your background. As such, nearly everyone will be able to glean something useful from this book.

Although Marc Mac Young has irritated many with his older writings, he set his opinions aside and worked with a traditional martial artist to write this book. Mr. Sutrisno is a wealth of information and and I understand was a major source of information for this book. Having met him and seen him move, I can attest that Mr. Sutrisno knows his stuff and can perform everything he talks about. So this book is not about untested theories, but sound principles that work. It's well worth the read.

This book essentially lives up to its title, and does nothing more or less. It does a very good job of defining martial arts in analytical terms, breaking everything down into a few categories (range, weight transfer, positioning, posture, and placement), offering general rules for proper movement within each category. Despite the fact that there are countless different systems that move in countless different ways, many of which disagree with each other in seemingly fundamental ways, proper movement is determined largely by human physiology. Different systems prove different, systematic ways of using human physiology to the practitioner's advantage. Becoming A Better Martial Artist wisely sticks to these physiological properties, successfully pointing out "alternate" ways of moving that do not constitute stylistic difference, but instead constitute improper movement. The authors provide guidance to the reader in examining his (or her) own system and training to look for things that may have been lost in transmission from teacher to student. These issues may be the result of the reader not fully understanding his teacher's instruction, or it may be the result of someone in the reader's lineage not fully understanding their training and propagating their mistakes to successive generations.

The other thing that this book does is provide an excellent explanation of the differences between self-defense and combat, and why combative techniques sometimes have no place in self-defense training (and, by extension, why many martial arts systems are not self-defense systems).

I have only one minor complaint about this book. In an effort to "appeal to the masses," the examples given are clearly based on Shotokan Karate. Mr. Sutrisno teaches Shotokan, though it's arguably not his primary system. Mr. MacYoung is kind of "nomadic" in his training and probably would not (and could not) claim any one art as his primary art. Given that Karate systems and styles that are based on / similar to it are generally the most widely practiced, this makes sense. Unfortunately, there are a few times where the explanations of the principles being demonstrated by the examples begin to enter into the realm of style-specific, and are not universally true. This is not often the case, though, and the majority of principles described within these pages are more or less universally true.

I also feel that the book has one "fatal flaw" in terms of the audience. This is not a complaint about the book; it's more an observation about human nature. This book is excellent for two groups of people - beginners who want a greater intellectual understanding of the martial arts (thus helping them learn their art more efficiently), and practitioners who have been taught improperly. The beginners, assuming they have a good teacher, will understand all of these principles within their first five years or so of training, so for them, this book will help them along on a path they're already walking down, as opposed to providing something they can't get from their teachers. In the case of the "improperly-experienced" practitioner, gaining anything from this book requires a great deal of critical, objective self-evaluation. People who have dedicated years to something are often reluctant to look at it critically (perhaps due to a subconscious fear that their years may have been "wasted" - it's easier not to know than to come to such a realization), and are reluctant to look outside their schools to better themselves. In short, the people who need this book most are the least likely to read it.

Finally, this book is not without its benefits for advanced practitioners, who are almost invariably teaching others (even if under the roof of their teachers). While I can say that I found the principles in this book to be obvious, it reinforced what I already knew, and helped give me some ideas to focus my teaching in a manner that will help illustrate the concepts more effectively, helping me recall ways my teacher teaches that I haven't thought about (and therefore used) in many years.

The description of this outstanding book states that it is a graduate level course in the strategic principles of self defense but don't look for fancy applications or whiz-bang techniques. It is really about the basic fundamentals that make any martial art work properly when you take your dojo skills on the street. This is good solid stuff, not particularly exciting, but absolutely essential, cerebral, and right on. The authors are highly skilled and their experience really resonates within these pages.

As most long-term martial artists know, earning a black belt is really just the beginning of a practitioner's martial journey. Since obtaining mine I discovered that the more I know, the more I realize that the fundamentals are paramount. That's the focus of this book. The SWOT analysis is an important tool described herein. It stands for Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat, an invaluable tool for error detection as you place your techniques under a microscope. Essential nuances of structure, posture, body mechanics, and positioning are critical for success and well described herein. The writing is clear, articulate, and easy to follow. The highlighted practice hints are a nice addition too.

My only complaint, which frankly is pretty minor, is that the pictures do not have very good contrast and there are harsh vertical lines on the wall in the background of many of them that make them a little challenging to view. Furthermore, there really are not enough photos to illuminate everything properly unless you've been practicing martial arts for a while and understand what the authors are talking about.

There is a very short section on the purpose of weapons and weapons training and a brief overview of what happens when you utilize this knowledge in the real world but the vast majority of the materials are focused on getting the basics right. Topics covered include range, weight transfer, positioning, posture, placement, blocking, punching, stances, kicking, elbows, takedowns, and throws.

Overall this is an excellent and highly recommended book.

Lawrence Kane
Author of Surviving Armed Assaults, The Way of Kata, and Martial Arts Instruction

This book "Cover-up of a Royal Murder;Hundreds of Errors in the Paget Report" by John Morgan, covers very adequately all the events leading up to and including the crash of the Mercedes that Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed were involved in on August 30,1997. In this book, Morgan also contributes much to the later investigation of the said events by exposing the inadequate conclusions arrived at in the Paget Report, as well as the obvious sifting of evidence by ignoring certain witness statements while accepting others,as well as the assignment of certain characteristics to witnesses,without qualifying their reason for doing this;the handling of contradiciive statements in the interrogation of witnesses;the conflicting testimony of those involved in the handling of tissue and fluid specimens from the bodies of Diana and Dodi Al Fayed;the reluctance of French authorities to respond appropriately to the investigation;etc.
Mr.Morgan has a clear and excellent, very readable writing style. His putting together of the actions and interactions that took place in the Alma Tunnel in the minutes prior to, during, and immediately after the crash, are very dramatic and well organized.

He adequately points out the flagrant negligence of the Paget report in so far as giving accurate evidence of their conclusions;the possible tampering with, of evidence, and dogmatic conclusions that are baseless in the face of obvious evidence to the contrary;the fact that Paget focuses on what witnesses did not see, rather than what they actually claimed to see(ie, evidence of the white Fiat Uno is described by several witnesses as being a central part of the collision and yet is discounted by Paget even after finding paint from the Fiat on the Mercedes);the altering of witness accounts as to locations,times,descriptions given;failure to adequately address the accusations of assassination("Franz Klein...told him that John Macnamara had said to him that he suspected murder rather than an accident...."-Pg 451 of "Cover-Up"),claims of threats against the bodyguards;the refusal of NSA/CIA to allow Paget access to their files on Diana;etc.

Mr.Morgan shows through a very thorough investigation of the facts, as compared with the Paget report, how the report is riddled with errors, dogmatic statements, third person summaries, failure to connect in a timely and factual manner, events and circumstances that led up to the crash, as well as failure on the part of the Paget report to adequately record testimonies of the persons and witnesses involved in these events, including crucial evidence of there being possible intent to deliberately distract the Mercedes driver and cause the crash;the questionable actions and statements of the physician who stopped to render aid;the destruction of photographs taken after the crash showing that Diana was alive and responding to caregivers;etc.

Mr Morgan exposes the generalization and speculations of the Paget report for the lack of evidence to prove their conclusions;ie, the altering of certain witnesses' testimonies in order to change the meaning;lack of specifics regarding pertinent details;inadequate timelines related to events leading up to and including the crash;acceptance of certain witnesses testimony without sufficient evidence to support their testimony, which did not agree with other witnesses;changing of testimonies of key witnesses;autopsy errors(ie,"there is no biological analysis of the liver, pancreas or other viscera [of Henri Paul] - yet Henri was accused of being an alcoholic"). According to this investigative report, the same incompetent person did the post mortem examination on Diana, and she was(for some unknown reason) embalmed before turning her body over to the family-"rendering any toxicology and pregnancy test pointless."

It is very obvious, from the evidence presented by John Morgan in "Cover-Up," that Henri Paul was not legally intoxicated, in fact not even to the point of it being detectable by those around him who knew what to look for(ie, the bodyguards) The evidence Mr.Morgan gives shows that without a doubt, the original pathologist was either incompetent, or very careless in the tests that she ran on the body of Henri Paul, which is why later tests were subsequently necessary.

These failures of the studies done by the pathologists may explain why so many of them resigned from the case, as noted in "Cover-Up."
The ineffective use of surveliance cameras at key points, and the failure of Paget to interview key persons involved in monitoring such equipment;failure to partition off the area of the crash for investigation; failure to provide for adequate lighting to support the investigation, along with the mishandling of information that resulted from the use of inadequate lighting in both cases;the premature cleanup of the said area before completion of the investigation by proper authorities is detailed in "Cover-Up."

The fact that pedestrians saw high tech cameras being used within a very short time after the crash and were witnesses to what actually happened, were being sent out of the tunnel by these cameramen and their assistants. According to John Morgan,these photos were never seen by the public or the police.
Mr Morgan compares the two cars the Mercedes 600 with the inferior S280 that was substituted and in which Dodi Al Fayed and Princess Diana were riding on the night of the crash, and shows how the Paget Report failed to follow through on evidence of pre-crash tampering with the latter vehicle, and compares the position of certain vehicles in and around the Mercedes in which Dodi and Diana were riding, in the final moments just before the fatal crash.

The evidence of error in the Paget Report is glaring. It is obvious that much of what happened in the Alma Tunnel prior to and following the crash, was not adequately followed up on in that investigation. "Cover-Up" mentions that much of the evidence given by pedestrians is not even mentioned in the report, neither is the fact that one of the motorcycles cut across in front of the Mercedes at one point just before the crash, flashing a blinding light into the face of the driver of the Mercedes, according to some witnesses, as recorded in "Cover-Up."

There is also indication according to "Cover-Up," that OPCI was aware of factors involved in the fatal crash, that were not revealed or addressed in their report;ie,interrogation of the drivers of other vehicles not associated with the Paparazzi(ie, the white Fiat Uno & the large black motorcycle);why no attempt was made to track down these vehicles;the mysterious death of the owner of the white Fiat Uno(James Andanson) in 2000, and his former association with Dodi Al Fayed and Diana;witness reports of strange behavior of the drivers and passengers of the said vehicles;why some witnesses claimed they saw a flashing light just prior to the crash;lack of proper witness interrogation by authorities at the scene, and changing of certain witness testimony in later interviews;photos taken before, during, and after the crash are missing and were never followed up on;the obvious negligence in giving emergency care to Diana is thoroughly covered by Mr.Morgan in a detailed report, showing that it took almost two hours to get her to a hospital that was only a few minutes away.
"Cover-Up" shows in detail that the post crash investigation was not thorough and that the evidence was obliterated before the proper authorities could complete their investigation.

COVER-UP OF A ROYAL MURDER :
Hundereds Of Errors in the PAGET REPORT
by John Morgan,
is a MUST READ.

Anyone who cares about corruption, abuse of power at the top and the lies surrounding the timely and conveninet deaths of Diana and Dodi and how it was all covered-up in an attempt to pass it off as JUST AN ACCIDENT , for nearly 11 years, will not be able to put down this book.

This book is an eye-opener into what is happening to a Great nation as it gives in to abuse of power and corruption at the top where even the Police is called in to cover-up crime and withhold evidence from Courts of justice and inquiries.

This is a MUST read for every person who is concerned about world corruption and abuse of power which leads to the destruction of innocent people and those who are trying to help them ,such as Diana the Princess of Wales.

John Morgan's book is a book, which once started cannot be put down as it is excellent from start to finish, easy to understand and follow and serves a very valid purpose as a moral eye-opener and a global awareness alarm.

John Morgan's book astounded me, a must read book. I found the book enthralling and I could not put it down, as I could not wait to see what else was wrong with the report.
The author is also outstanding in the way he has found the evidence that to me proves Diana was murdered and not killed accidentally. It is obvious to me that the Paget Report has mishandled the report with missing evidence and false so-called evidence. To think, the present inquiry uses the Paget Report, what a fallacy.
The author has found so much evidence that is not in or has been changed in
the report. I have to wonder how the report was concocted at such great cost.
I just hope that this book brings to light some of the evidence the
author has found and is taken into account.

I found John Morgan's book totally gripping. It is a must read book for anyone seeking the truth of Princess Diana's death. John Morgan has written much about mistakes and crucial evidence in the Paget Report. It opens ones eyes to think that this report is being used in the enquiry into Diana's death. It is a fallacy. The author has made it clear that her death was not accidental, but a conspiracy to murder.
A good deal of information was left out of the Paget Report. For example, some witnesses were not interviewed or investigated or if they were, their information was not included. The treatment of Diana's injuries and the time it took to get her to a hospital is another issue. If she had had appropriate treatment she could have lived. That obviously wasn't wanted. Also evidence at the scene of the crime was removed before the experts arrived. This is an amazing book and one I will read again.
It has given me an interest too into the enquiry being held now in England. If it is based on the Paget Report, it will be a grave miscarriage of justice.

John Morgan's book contains compelling evidence of the death of Princess
Diana not being accidental as reported. It is brilliantly written, and a
huge amount of research must have been put into this book.

Reading 'Cover-up of a Royal Murder' convinced me beyond doubt that Diana
was the victim of sinister and deliberate series of acts of conspiracy
that caused her death. As I read the book, I was astounded at
the volume of evidence pointing to criminal involvement rather then an
accident.

As the author shows the Paget Report certainly has many holes and incorrect evidence in it, and yet it has been produced for the enquiry being held. The thought of the enquiry being conducted using the Paget report doesn't make any sense at all, so I hope this is taken into account in the British enquiry.

but I remember it quite well. I read it very fast..and I did a lot of reflecting along the way. It was written in a very comfortable style. I do remember that I thought it was an excellent book.

This is such a wonderful read on so many levels. The title is a perfect play on words, considering the doctor's specialty. The actual story of the gifted ob's misjudgement is fascinating. The account of the therapy which restored her ability to function professionally is equally fascinating. It is tremendously life-affirming to see the humanity of the doctor. Realizing how deeply she cares makes me appreciate my professional colleagues even more. Too often in today's healthcare environment we see people focused on billing and it is easy to lose sight of the sincere desire to help and do good which draws people to the practice of medicine. This book should be required reading for every medical school and residency program.

Put the keys in the ignition and take this book for a ride. As you watch where you're heading, Dan paints a breath-taking portrait of the landscape. Like Mom's Marijuana, the focus is a patient's struggle through devastating illness, but this time Dan is the caregiver rather than patient. It's compelling. Once again, I only stopped reading when I was overwhelmed by sleep in the not so wee hours of the morning. You'll laugh and cry, and grow.

If you are a fan of the narrative non-fiction genre, you will love this book. The author does a wonderful job of telling Dr. Amelia's story through his sessions with her, but also relates it to his own experiences of being a patient himself. It's hard not to be drawn to Dr. Amelia's character - and identify with her and what she's going through. Beautifully written, Dan Shapiro tells this story in a way that's clever and humorous, and has you captivated from the start.

I saw the Library Journal starred review that compared the Shapiro to Oliver Sacks (my favorite writer) and decided to pick up Delivering Doctor Amelia, what a great read! The book is structured around roughly 30 therapy sessions between an eloquent psychologist (the writer) and his patient, whom he describes as a gifted obstetrician. At first the obstetrician won't say why she's come into treatment and as her story unfolds and the stakes go up you can't help but get sucked in. In my case, I read it over three nights and ended up sleepless. This book takes you inside the minds of a psychologist and a physician and shows how they talk and think when no one else is around.

I hate when people ruin stories so I won't give away the ending, but I will say that the book pays off -- I cried at the end.