Book Description
Jennifer Weiner's talent shines like never before in this collection of short stories, following the tender, and often hilarious, progress of love and relationships over the course of a lifetime. From a teenager coming to terms with her father's disappearance to a widow accepting two young women into her home, Weiner's eleven stories explore those transformative moments in our every day.
We meet Marlie Davidow, home alone with her new baby late one Friday night, when she wanders onto her ex's online wedding registry and wonders what if she had wound up with the guy not taken. We stumble on Good in Bed's Bruce Guberman, liquored-up and ready for anything on the night of his best friend's bachelor party, until stealing his girlfriend's tiny rat terrier becomes more complicated than he'd planned. We find Jessica Norton listing her beloved New York City apartment in the hope of winning her broker's heart. And we follow an unlikely friendship between two very different new mothers, and the choices that bring them together -- and pull them apart.
The Guy Not Taken demonstrates Weiner's amazing ability to create characters who "feel like they could be your best friend" (Janet Maslin) and to find hope and humor, longing and love in the hidden corners of our common experiences.
Customer Reviews:
Not the Jennifer Weiner book I was wishing for-DREARY.......2007-10-06
I purchased this book because I have so enjoyed Jennifer Weiner's other books; funny, touching and bright. When I see a Jennifer Weiner book on the shelf I automatically purchase it! It was actually after reading several chapters that I realized these were short stories which are not my favorite- I prefer greater character development but it was my own fault for not reading the back cover of the book. I figured out the short story format when I realized the chapters kept having the same theme; depressed female, "woe is me" tone, overweight females, grandmothers, messed up mothers, swimming etc. but the character names changed - aha! Personally, I read fictional novels for an uplifting fun experience not to get depressed. I will probably be more selective before picking up another of her books. It is hard for me not to finish a book but with this one just couldn't do it.
Fun, thoughtful travel reading. .......2007-10-04
I purchased the book for a three-day weekend, and it was perfect reading. Short stories are great for reading on a plane or in the airport while I was waiting, or during a short lunch in a coffee shop in New England. I don't usually read short stories, but I am a big fan of Weiner's so I really wanted to try these. The stories aren't the most memorable that I have ever read, but the characters were real and interesting, and are still lingering in my head. I hope that she writes or publishes another collection of stories -- I won't wait so long to buy that collection.
Jennifer Wiener The Guy Not Taken.......2007-09-30
I am a huge fan of Jennifer Wiener as an author but did not like this book at all. I am not a fan of short stories (as another poster stated). I did not feel that the book flowed, and honestly did not finish it.
I would highly recommend her other books over this one. She overall is an excellent author though.
Such Great Starts.......2007-09-06
I love Jennifer Weiner and so far I've really loved all of her books, but the short story thing really doesn't work. Each one starts our so great and I got really into each of them, but then they just end, very abruptly. I didn't get much of a point or plot to most of the stories. At the end of the book she wrote a little afterthought about why they each wasn't written into an entire novel, but then I think why bother at all. I feel like some of them, especially the first couple about the same family, really had the potential to be a novel - but just kind became a dud. They were, however, entertaining until you get to the end and realize they lead nowhere.
I hated it.......2007-08-31
Im a huge Jennifer Weiner fan and have read all of her books. unfortunately, i hated this one. it was very boring. everytime you thought the story was about to peak, it would end and go to another story. it was very unfulfilling and disappointing..
Customer Reviews:
Excellent for teens, parents and for people who "grew up Christian"........2007-02-06
For those who grew up in the "culture" of Christianity, this is an excellent book to awaken us to the numbness many of us may currently experience in our relationship with our Creator God. It is written to the adolescent primarily, with short (but relevant and powerful) stories about situations they (and we who are older) may be facing today. This is then followed up with some sound teaching on various subjects, finishing each chapter with some mental checklists for discussion and thought.
For parents, it allows us to have our eyes and ears open to what our children may be experiencing as young people "growing up Christian"--the dangers of knowing all the information, yet not having a heart soft towards the LORD; of becoming conditioned to the voices of Truth and having a wandering eye and ear towards the world and its voice of lies.
This is an excellent book to read with your young adolescent (or pre-teen) to help them realize who they are and where they live currently and to see the pitfalls that potentially lie ahead of them if they choose to walk in the way of this world versus the Way of the LORD.
I've been giving it out to anyone who "grew up Christian" or have children who are "growing up Christian".
Excellent student resource.......2007-01-10
This is an excellent resource for high school and college students. It is very thought provoking for any. It would be useful for a Sunday school class as well.
Important Reading for Parents and Teens.......2005-10-13
Growing up Christian is not as easy a task as one might think. There are dangers and temptations unique to growing up within a Christian family and within the church and sadly these difficulties are often downplayed or misunderstood by those who have been converted later in life. Growing Up Christian seeks examine these issues, which, as a person who grew up in a Christian home (ie a "church kid"), are near and dear to my heart. The book is targetted primarily at church kids, though their parents would do well to read the book with them. The author, Karl Graustein, is a church kid himself and is now a principal at a Christian school, so is intimately aware of the issues at stake.
The book is divided into three sections. The first lays out the blessings and the dangers of growing up in a Christian family. "Growing up in a Christian home is a wonderful privilege. We have been given so much: godly parents, training in the Word of God, friends from Christian homes, support from a Christian church community, and most importantly an opportunity to know God at a young age. Throughout our lives, we are repeatedly taught about the love of God, his plan of salvation, ways to recognize and resist sin, and living for the glory of God" (page 21). He goes on to recount other benefits of being raised in a Christian environment, pointing out that while we are given so much we are also protected from so many dangers.
"Church kids face some unique challenges...Though surrounded by the things of God, we can still be drawn to sin and live double lives. We can easily assume that we are saved even if we are not; or we may be driven by a desire to be popular more than a desire to live according to biblical values. While it is a great blessing to grow up in a Christian environment, if we are not careful we can make some dangerous assumptions about ourselves, which have serious consequences" (page 22).
I can testify from my life that I have seen both the privilege and the danger of growing up in a Christian home. I am ever thankful to God that He blessed me with discerning parents who, though they did not understand from their own experience what it is like to be a church kid, were unrelenting in sharing the gospel with us. Their efforts have been blessed as all five of their children know and serve the Lord. But as often as I have seen this type of blessing, I have seen the opposite, where the children of Christians fall away or live lukewarm at best, always assuming but never knowing that they are saved.
The second section teaches kids how to think biblically. Graustein speaks of the importance of cultivating humility, of growing in gratefulness, of loving Scripture and of trusting God. He also covers what I might consider the most important topic in the book: developing personal biblical convictions. On the front cover of the book are the words, "Have you taken ownership of your relationship with God?" Just this weekend I was discussing this topic with my friend Doug and I suggested that this is exactly what the children of Christians need to do. For many years we coast along under the umbrella of our parents' faith. We do what they do and say what they say simply because that is what we have been taught. But there comes a time of crisis and decision. This is a time I remember from my own life. I do not know whether this is the moment I became a Christian or whether that was much earlier, but I do clearly remember the day that God allowed me to make my parents' faith my own. It was a day of transformation in my life. It is a day that I suspect all church kids have at some point.
The final section deals with living biblically and the author discusses battling sin, the spiritual disciplines and stewardship of God-given talents. Much of this section draws upon and is consistent with the excellent teaching ministry of Don Whitney and his book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. Other clear influences on the author through this section and others are J.C. Ryle, John Piper, Jerry Bridges and C.J. Mahaney. Graustein is clearly a man who has spent much time in the Word and much time learning from sound teachers.
All-in-all this is a fantastic book and one which I wish I had been able to read while I was a teenager still wrestling with my faith. To echo the endorsement of Tedd Tripp, "Karl Graustein gets it! He understands the pitfalls and dangers that track with the privilege of growing up in a Christian home. He addresses all the standard temptations...This book has a look and feel that young people will appreciate." Growing Up Christian is a book I would unhesitatingly recommend to any and all Christian parents and teens.
This is a bit unusual, but I'd like to make special mention of the person who designed the cover for this book. It is very well done and I suspect this book will sell quite a few copies to those who judge a book by its cover. Well done! If there are awards for this type of thing I hope you receive consideration.
Book Description
Charisma has come to be understood today as a special gift or talent that celebrities–artistic performers, athletes, movie stars, or political leaders–possess, a quality that makes their lives exemplary and transforms them into objects of universal appeal or attraction.
In Charisma, Philip Rieff explores the emergence and evolution of this mysterious and compelling concept within Judeo-Christian culture. Its first expression was in the idea of the covenant between God and the Israelites: Charisma–religious grace and authority–was transferred through divine inspiration to the Old Testament prophets; it was embodied by Jesus of Nazareth, the first true charismatic hero. Rieff shows how St. Paul transformed charisma into a form of social organization, how it was reworked by Martin Luther and by nineteenth-century Protestant theologians, and, finally, how Max Weber redefined charisma as a secular political concept. By emptying charisma of its religious meaning, Weber opened the door to the modern perception of it as little more than a form of celebrity, stripped of moral considerations.
Rieff rejects Weber’s definition, insisting that Weber misunderstood the relation between charisma and faith. He argues that without morality, the gift of grace becomes indistinguishable from the gift of evil, and it devolves into a license to destroy and kill in the name of faith or ideology. Offering brilliant interpretations of Kierkegaard, Weber, Kafka, Nietzsche, and Freud, Rieff shows how certain thinkers attacked the very possibility of faith and genuine charisma and helped prepare the way for the emergence of a therapeutic culture in which it is impossible to recognize that which is sacred. Rieff’s analysis of charisma is an analysis of the deepest level of crisis in our culture.
Customer Reviews:
the foundations of charisma and natural leadershp.......2007-07-27
The author details the foundations of charisima , indicating what true qualities establish people to have this trait and without these foundations , the charisima is not real. This is a very deep book, sometimes difficult to comprehand and follow and thats why I gave it three stars. The author writes like an intellectual, but I think he may be missing his mark to appeak to a large audience as a result.
An intriguing discussion.......2007-06-17
CHARISMA: THE GIFT OF GRACE, AND HOW IT HAS BEEN TAKEN AWAY FROM US tells of the idea of charisma from its earliest recognition by Old Testament prophets to the first charismatic, Jesus of Nazareth, and how charisma became part of the Christian church's evolution. Rieff argues for a different understanding of the relationship between charisma and faith, examining traditional and modern perceptions and paving the way for a dialogue between believers on the topic. An intriguing discussion, CHARISMA should prove of interest to any serious religious collection.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
A Literary Theology Response to Postmoderns.......2007-04-08
"Charisma" and Philip Rieff are not for everyone or for most. (Read the prior review from G. Lehman about the difficulty of the writing style to see this.) If you have not read widely, especially in the Bible, and the postmodern precursors like Freud, Nietzsche, or Weber then "Charisma" will likely strike you as an academic bore.
Rieff accomplishes what seems to be a postmodern impossibility: thinking "intellectually" about the Bible and theology. By "intellectually" I mean that secular, academic, scientific perspective of conceptualization, rationalization, and articulation of ideas that is foundational in higher education and "elite" groups. It's what professors and public intellectuals do. Within that class of people, the Bible and theology are most typically viewed as intellectual deadends of proven unworth that appeal to sweaty snakehandlers under the tent on a hot August night. Rieff demonstrates that it is possible and interesting to think like an "intellectual" about Biblical and theological concepts in much the same way he did with his recent work, "Sacred Order," (another Rieff book I'd highly recommend and with the same caveats as observed with G. Lehman).
"Charisma" traces the meaning of the term, "charisma," from its original theological roots to its current postmodern corrupted state, explaining along the way how this corruption occurred (primarily through the writings of the postmodern precursors like Weber), but more importantly, the intellectual, moral, and cultural implications of this corruption. While we live in the postmodern Humpty Dumpty world where words mean whatever we chose them to mean, Rieff explicates "charisma" as a religiously derived term that springs from God and His Authority and then observes how the Humpty Dumpty changes in meaning that have occurred in the past 150 years have transformed the term into the postmodern foolishness of "charisma" as something that George Clooney, Madonna, and the latest American Idol possess. Please consider briefly the implication behind "charisma" as an element of fame versus "charisma" as the force of God's authority. If this is not an interesting or challenging comparison, you are not curious how this change in meaning developed, and you don't see any cultural or moral implications in the shift, then this book is not for you.
One appealing element of "Charisma" is that Philip Rieff has actually read the Bible and can pass the standard true-false test on its content. He continually demonstrates the bad misreadings of that text by writers like Weber and Freud who clearly read the Bible selectively (or more charitably with the map of misreading as described by Professor Bloom) in their attempts to discredit that theology and inflate their proposed substitutes. It's one thing to reject a perspective because you simply disagree with it, but it's another thing to reject it through misreading. As someone who was trained in the postmodern university, it is with considerable embarassment that I realize how much of the postmodern criticism of religion I accepted without reading the footnotes in that criticism. Freud makes a lot more sense when you uncritically accept his view of the Bible. If you know the Bible, Freud becomes just an another intellectual on the make trying to push his theory.
As I noted in my review of "Sacred Order" I've been a constant reader for over 40 years. I found "Sacred Order" to be one of the strongest, most interesting, and compelling books I've read. I see "Charisma" in the same light. This is a great book and worthy of reading, rereading, and reflection.
And, there awaits publication of a third volume in this series!
cloud of verbiage.......2007-04-05
If you think run-on sentences and page-long paragraphs are a necessary conduit to recondite wisdom, then you might want to wade into this morass of Latinated English prose. For myself, I think if the professor can't speak ordinary English I suspect that he's not thinking clearly. I wish I would have been warned that this is a project of two of his adoring pupils. And I wish I had been warned that couched in the ponderings are rationales, it seem to me, for disgust for the world as we know it, and reasons that Christianity almost has to be pivoted against Jewish religion. I myself have thought that many good persons have been working on this issue to a much more agreeable resolution.
Book Description
As a teenager taking pictures of fellow surfers in 1960s La Jolla, Jeff Divine got to know the original alternative sport before the X-Games were even a gleam in a producer's eye. Through this rare collection of photographs from the momentous decade that followed, he conveys the feeling of being on the beach in its most creative era, being present at the inception of a subculture too large and photogenic to stay down long. The style, the athleticism and the escapism in these images will be familiar to those with even a lazy eye on pop culture: surfing is on the rise again. Of its first time around, Divine says, "Yes, I had long hair. And Pendletons, Mexican wedding shirts, bell bottoms, Wallabies, Zig Zags and tuna, wheat bread, and sprouts in the fridge. Santana, The Dead, Jesse Colin Young, Steppenwolf, Moby Grape, The Stones, Beatles and Clifton Chenier on the stereo. Hippie seamstresses made us custom shirts with embroidered necks and coconut buttons. I had a beaded curtain through which you entered my den. No, I didn't have any black light posters, but I did have the Juan O. Gorman poster "Flores Imaginarias" and Ortner at 3M's on the wall. Reading material? The Life Photography Series, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, M.C. Escher art books, Zap comics, or the Carlos Castaneda series. But our prize possessions were our garage-made surfboards all lined up in the side yard. They mattered the most."
Customer Reviews:
if you love surfing...& even if you do not..........2006-08-07
this is an amazing book- some of the best surf pictures (in my opinion) during one of the most visually inspiring era's of surfing. the pages are arranged in such a way so as to not distract you from their content, the printing is awesome and there's not a single shot not worthy of a poster size above your bed. this book will not harsh your mellow- it will make you want to move to lucadia, ride only a single fin & get a job wrapping surf wax for .25 cents per bar....
Book Description
America swears by it!In the English language, swearing is essential to effective communication. Whether you want to succeed in business, school, or social circles, a strong command of vocabulary is absolutely necessary. Just imagine a stranger to our shores, trying to comprehend the following conversation: John: Mary, would you like to attend the opera this evening?Mary: F*cking-A. should I wear my black dress?John: Why the f*ck not?Mary: F*cked if I know-Oh, f*ck! I just remembered. It got f*cked up in the wash.John: Well, f*ck the opera. Let's stay home and f*ck.Mary: Good f*cking idea.English as a Second F*cking Language (ESF*L) is the perfect way for nonnative speakers to learn the basics of swearing. At the same time, it also offers native speakers a wide variety of twists and new refinements. Page after page, ESF*L provides a smorgasbord of swearing synonyms designed to boost your vocabulary-everything from the conventional d*mn and sh*t to a host of more inventive terms that would make any truck driver blush. And when you're finished reading, our Final F*cking Exam is the perfect test of your swearing skills. You'll be surprised by how much you've learned!
Customer Reviews:
Great Book.......2007-01-09
one of the best books out there to read. very usefull and insightful
Fun Book - Good Reference for Non Native English Speakers.......2007-01-04
This is a book which has a funny approach on everyday language. Words and sentences that once seemed to have no sense at all are now explained. While the meaning of these expressions might be widely known for native speakers, it is a good reference for foreigners who are willing to excel in English language, even in its weirdest senses.
Funny but very short.......2006-12-24
This book is less than one hundred pages, in large print, with an odd page size. In other words, it's more a pamphlet than a book. For the price, I found the brevity very disappointing.
However, the concent was extremely funny, and did teach me at least one rather delightful phrase I had never heard before.
Learn how to swear.......2005-08-24
Well... at least you know what it means when others are swearing ;)
not for ESL.......2005-02-04
I bought this book to help some of my ESL students to understand how/when to use American swear words.....however, it is definitely not a good reference in that sense. Although it IS funny, it is more of a narrative and not a resource.
Book Description
Aahz gets an unwelcome visit from two blue-skinned bruisers and a small magician wanting Skeeve to cough up the dough for an extremely large bill that he skipped out on. Knowing that Skeeve has many faults, but welshing on a debt is not one of them, he enlists the aid of Chumley and Massha to go with him to the last place any self respecting Pervert would ever visit...the mall! Once there, they discover that the mall rats have created a scheme to steal customers' credit cards. Realizing that Skeeve is a victim of identity theft they set our to set matters right and to clear their friend's name...
Customer Reviews:
Shopping gone mad..........2007-04-05
This is a good book, and definately fitting of the Myth series. With that said, it was a little slow and seemed to jump from slow to "skipped over" in a few spots. Not quite as enjoyable as the rest of the series, but still worthy of the read.
Who wrote / illustrated this book?.......2007-02-03
Myth-Taken Identity is the 14th book in the Myth series so there is a kind of familiarity among followers of the series. Even with the long hiatus that took place because of Bob Asprin's IRS troubles, there is a significant body of work that one can read and appreciate the Myth world and what it represents and how it is written. In this case, this book is clearly written by someone other than Bob Asprin.
The Myth series has always relied on a kind of light humor with gentle touches - in the book just prior to this one, Skeeve goes to help the lamb-like denizen of the Wuhs dimension (that's right - wusses!). In this book there is none of that gentle humor and fun puns. Instead we are treated to a 290+ page screed against the american mall culture, wrapped around a storyline that has no mystery to it, enveloped in a pure action sequence. to give some examples of what I mean: the mall manager is named Moa (Mall of America); Many of the escapades revolve around selling "exclusive" merchandise in "exclusive" events; the main trinket that is the object of many characters is the Gold Master Card; and on and on and on.
The story is told from Aahz's perspective which is actually a first. Supposedly this happens while Skeeve is on Wuhs so only Aahz, Massha, and Chumley are involved. Chumley is described as being purple with mismatched eyes in different sizes - VERY different than the descriptions of his green sister Tananda! Since Aahz does not have magical powers, he has to solve the problem by brute force - which he does - but the problem for me is that Aahz was always the more brainy operator who could figure things out and not need to use his strength. So, this is another degradation of the Myth mythology.
The troublemakers in this story are Mall Rats (huh, huh) who try to get powerful magic by stealing people's identities (huh huh, again) and who shoplift and steal stuff for the joy of it. The Myth gang is accompanied by a few new characters who were fun to read about and eventually the gang is captured. An incongruity here is that the gang leader is supposedly a stupid janitor yet he manages to outsmart Aahz and gang repeatedly. Until the end of the book, every trap that the Myth'ers lay is foiled and the mall rats are always outprepared and outthink Aahz and his cronies.
The front cover illustration is another miss. Massha is depicted as a female pervect while Aahz is given an orange beard (!!) Obviously the illustrator had very imperfect knowledge of the characters and the story line!
So, was there anything good about this story? Well, if you set aside the expectations you might have from Asprin's previous work, then this was a pretty fun and mindless action story. The final sequence when Aahz and the gang manage to get their hands on the culprit is well paced. It is completely nonsensical in that everytime the culprit changes his shape he manages to gain the powers of that being while Aahz's changes do nothing, but overall it is a fun conclusion.
So, if you are an Asprin fan, this will irritate you. If you have no idea what Myth, Aahz, Skeeve mean, then enjoy it.
Not a Myth book.......2006-09-30
First let me say that I'm a recent convert to the Myth fan persuasion. I recently ready the first twelve books and by and large enjoyed all of them. Myth-Taken Identity, however, just is not the same. Sure the characters in this book have the same names and some of the same descriptions as the rest the characters in the rest of the series, but it just has a different feel.
At first it grated on me (actually Chumley's speech still does... just adding "what?" to the end of a sentence doesn't make it British). After about 1/3 of the way through I settled down and decided that since this isn't really a Myth book, I'll just take it on its own and see how it is. The result: nothing stellar. It's not terrible, but not particularly good. Say about 2.5, maybe 3 stars. But try as I may, I keep coming back to thinking what this book could have been. Take the same basic plot line and write a book that's really the same feel and humor as the Myth series, and that would be a good book.
Actually, my number one complaint of this book is that things are described in too much detail. One of Robert Asprin's great skills was giving enough of a description to pass on important character information and perhaps a few important physical traits. The rest is left to the reader to fill in. This book drastically deviated from my mental model of several characters. I liked mine better because they were mine. In my opinion it would have been better to stick with the original style.
pathetic.......2006-04-23
Another great writer sells out. Read the original series but forget the rest. Nothing but pap, bad puns, and even worse dialoque. It's obvious that Mr Asprin does very little in regards to providing imput on the new books. I was barely able to finish the book instead of throwing it away in disgust. To sum it up; this and the other myth books with the co-authors are pure garbage. The death of a good series and not a dignify one.
Irritating..........2005-11-07
..is the best way I can describe this installment of the resurrected MYTH series. While I was very fond of the last book (and the first one JLN co-authored), this one just doesn't ring true.
While it is good to see Aahz, Chumley, and Mashha back in action, and while I found the identity theft hook intriguing, almost everything else just fell flat. The whole Mall setting gets dull real fast. (And the depiction of the store owners in the mall as a closely knit community? As someone who has worked in retail, that's just bull-pucky. Mr. Asprin got it right in the adventure when Skeeve went to Perv and had to deal with the indifferent staff at a department store.)
And that's another thing: In Myth-Nomers and Im-Perv-ections, THERE ARE LARGE DEPARTMENT STORES! Almost mall like! Why is Aahz so stunned by the existence of a mall? I dunno. Just more of the lazy writing that has plagued the last few books of the series. In fact, any pretense of the medieval feel of the first few books is long gone. People chat on cell phones at Starbucks and type on their laptops.
The villain in this novel is pathetic and it is not really explained why he has suddenly evolved into this super magical being. The last 2/3rds of the book are just repetitious, as the gang sets up a plan to catch him and he foils it. Repeat. Again. And there really is no reason why it should take this long to catch him. (And Robert? Jody? The last Lord of the Rings movie came out two years ago. Let's move on. Please.)
On the plus side, the characters are starting to seem more like the ones I remember reading a decade ago. However, this is the first Myth book that I haven't actually bought. Since the quality has varied so much over the last few installments, I thought it best to get it out of the library. I think I'm going to keep that up for a while.
Book Description
This thematic reader provides 60 short, contemporary, and engaging readings to help students develop analytical reading and writing skills.Brief, accessible readings--ranging from personal topics such as >169>Identity” and “Relationships,” to broader categories like “Work”and “Pop Culture,”--engage readers and encourage critical reading and analytical discussions. The text is organized around 10 contemporary topics, each illustrated by a diverse selection of essays, as well as non-traditional sources including letters to the editor, articles from a college newspaper, travel writing, and dictionary entries. Individuals who want to improve their critical reading skills and learn to shape their writing for different audiences and media.
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- Available FREE at karlaturner (dot) org
- The most informative book on UFO abductions I've ever read.
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Taken: Inside the Alien-Human Abduction Agenda
Karla Turner
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ASIN: 0964089904 |
Customer Reviews:
Available FREE at karlaturner (dot) org.......2005-05-31
This is, without a doubt, one of the most important books on the subject of UFO abductions ever written -- but the author is suspiciously dead and the book is out-of-print. Used copies are selling for over $50 for a paperback! Don't pay it! Get it free on the web at karlaturner (dot) org.
The most informative book on UFO abductions I've ever read........1999-10-29
Eight well written case histories of aductions including details usually excluded from other accounts of abductions by other authors.
Her chapter eleven, "Expanding The View", summarizes a chilling perspective of the "control" consistantly exerted over abductees.
Book Description
John Taylor just discovered his long-gone mother created the Nightside--the dark heart of London--and intends to destroy it. To save his birthplace, he will have to travel back through a very distant--and probably deadly--past.
Download Description
John Taylor just discovered his long-gone mother created the Nightside--the darkheart of London--and intends to destroy it. To save his birthplace, he will travel back through a very distant--and probably deadly--past.
Customer Reviews:
Search for Nightside's Origins.......2007-09-27
Paths Not Taken (2005) is the fifth urban fantasy novel in the Nightside series, following Hex and the City. In the previous volume, John Taylor finally discovered the identity of his mother when she visited Strangefellows, but quickly regretted the knowledge. Walker and his minions invaded the bar to destroy Taylor, but are defeated by Taylor's friends and relative.
Bad Penny stabbed Taylor and was permanently banished from Strangefellows and everywhere else. Merlin even nullified the Speaking Gun. Then Taylor tipped his mother out of the bar back the way she had come.
In this novel, Taylor has a visitor at the office. Unfortunately, he is actually present at the time. When asked his complaint, Eamonn Mitchell says that he is being hounded by other versions of himself. Then such other versions appear, armed with change wands, and make a mess out of Cathy's carefully filed paperwork [snigger]. Taylor and Tommy Oblivion -- another Nightside PI -- track down the man behind the plot and reason with him.
Taylor is impressed by Tommy's talent and invites him along on a trip back through time. Suzie Shooter invites herself into the party. Old Father Time sends them into the far past, but not quite far enough.
In this story, Taylor and associates find themselves in the Nightside of sixth century AD. Taylor figures than Lilith has interfered with the time transfer and gets VERY angry. After he cools down enough, they decide that their best chance to go further back in time is Merlin Satanspawn.
Failing to locate Merlin at the Londinium Club, they next try the current version of Strangefellows. Taylor recognizes the exterior view of the Avalon from a prior experience. They find Merlin inside and shortly thereafter Nimue the witch appears.
Nimue is a bubbly little golddigger. A former Druid, she had run away and then convinced Merlin to teach her real magic. Now Taylor talks her into helping them, but their plans go dreadfully wrong. Despite all this, Taylor and Suzie go back further in time, but not quite far enough.
Taylor finds someone, or something, else to send them even further in time. Finally Taylor gets back to Nightside's origins. It's not much like his expectations, but he does have a confrontation with his future mother.
This story parallels the previous novel. He meets people, or things, that he had encountered in the previous novel during his excursions back in time. Naturally, these persons or things have some memory of Taylor when they later -- or earlier -- meet him in the future.
Highly recommended for Green fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of tough detectives, various magics, and a personal quest through time.
-Arthur W. Jordin
Super Reader.......2007-08-26
Not really as good as the last few, because it really breaks the fantasy-noir feel to go on a time travelling adventure, for most of it.
John takes Suzie Shooter and Tommy Oblivion with him through time, to try and work out a way to stop the war with his mother Lilith.
Along the way you get Arthur, Mordred, Merlin, Nimue, Father Time, and a rather meaner version of Herne the Hunter than previously.
Lilith, of course, is still waiting for them, as the relationship between John and Suzie intensifies.
Another awesome book by this author. .......2007-01-12
well, this is like the 6ht one i read of his.
I love the NIghtside even if i seems to be much of the same over and over.
was kinda sad to see dead boy was not in this one.
Better, but still.......2006-04-14
Trust me, it is not fun being the lone wet blanket amongst a chorus of positive reviews, but....
This was better than the last book, but the last was so lame that it took me a long time to read this one. Green STILL isn't doing ANYTHING different from Cook's Garret series and the Garret series is still better. That's why it only gets 2 stars instead of 3.
Look, if you only read super duper mega fiction then you will like this series, heck you will like anything that Green wrote. Also, you should be reading a lot of the miliporn done by Brunch and Drake and by the way have you resubscribed to Soldier of Fortune and Babes with Guns?
I like his work when there's nothing eles to read, but know this: Walter Jon Williams does the male-female buddy cop characters better than this, Cook does the fantasy detective better than this and the Dresden series handles fantasy meets machineguns better than this, and Morgan's Kovacks character is much tougher than John Tyler.
Still, its a fun ride, but not a great book. I will read the next book because its a fun ride. It is wrong to say its a good book however, because the plots are still shallow (though there's actually some character relationship development in this one) and the characters are stock put in every book Green has ever written. If you've read the other books in the series this is better than the last because it has an interesting take on Roman times, however, I still ask: how much over the top phantasmagoria can you take before it becomes mediocre?
Per my 16 yr old who reads them-.......2006-02-06
This book was very good! Excellent author; love the series.
Book Description
For fifteen years, automotive consumer expert and former auto dealer Remar Sutton has helped hundreds of thousands of car buyers to get the best deal in town. This completely new edition protects car buyers from the dealers' latest secret weapon-the Internet. Even the smallest bit of information entered on a Web site can give dealers what they need to take unfair advantage of their customers. From shopping and negotiating to financing, Sutton exposes car dealers' scams and gives you step-by-step instructions on how to get the best deal. With vital information about Internet shopping, privacy issues and how to use the Internet safely, and taking on the dealers, Sutton's guide is a must-read before stepping into a real or virtual showroom.
Customer Reviews:
Car Buyer's MUST READ Manual.......2007-04-16
This book is a must read. Packed with info I did not find in other material, fun to read (amazing for a car-buying guide). Trust me, if you don't want to be the patsy at the dealership poker game, you want to read this book first. It will save you thousands of dollars.
Good info, but the online stuff is overblown ..........2006-05-14
This book provides some good information on buying cars, and many of the tips suggested are spot on. But when it comes to the role of computers and the Internet in this equation, the author really needs to do more research for the next edition of this book. I work for one of the bigger online car-buying sites as well as providing support for car dealerships in getting their inventory online, and I thought it important to clear the air about a few things.
First of all, the way the author presents things, you would think that if you were to visit autotrader.com (or a similar site) with cookies turned on, suddenly every dealer in town knows your life history. But I'm here to tell you that these sites aren't nearly that sophisticated, and neither are the dealers. In fact, some dealers still keep their car inventory on Excel spreadsheets! And for the ones that do have some sort of server for managing inventory and sales, many of them don't even know how to use them beyond the basic essentials. In fact, I myself know more about these systems than do most dealers, and I've never personally worked with any of them. Trust me when I say that, contrary to what this book will tell you, dealers (or at least none of the ones I've seen) don't have some elaberate network of supercomputers to track your every move online. Heck, most of them could barely manage a Google search on their own :)
In fact, as far as the web is concerned, dealers won't pay attention to you unless you actually go online and fill out a form requesting a price quote or further information about a car, and then they only have as much data as you give them. Once you fill out the form, your request for information goes into a 'lead management tool' (one of these I also provide support for), which is little more than an Outlook-style web interface where dealers can track their dealings with you. For example, they can log any email, phone, or personal meetings, etc that they have with you, along with reminders of appointments to test drive a car and other important events. But my question to you is, since you have obviously expressed an interest in one or more of their vehicles, why WOULDN'T they want to keep a log of their correspondance with you? It's not like they're going to sell the information. In fact, as soon as the correspondance ends (either in you buying a car or doing business somewhere else), they'll either mark you as 'sold' or 'dead' respectively and that's pretty much the end of it, untl/unless you write them again. In fact, the worst that can happen is you may get occassional spam from the dealer (something I'm not particularly happy that dealers do) about sales events and such, and you can even opt out of those.
All that being said, even with the advent of car-buying websies, the best way to get a good deal on a car is still to go to the dealership and haggle (and this book will show you how to do that). If you do buy a car online without ever having visited a dealership, you're going to pay way more than you should 99% of the time. I have the luxury of seeing both the sticker and invoice prices on cars for many dealerships and it's not uncommon to see them differ by thousands of dollars. A tip I'd like to share with you (and I don't think this is in the book) is that if you find a particular option or color on a car that the dealership doesn't have, even if you're willing to live without that option or color, tell the dealer that you MUST have said item and tell them it's a deal-breaker if you can't get it. You'd be amazed at how fast the price comes down :) Oh, and if you want to get the extended warranty, NEVER do so at the price they quote you. I was able to get $800 knocked off the price without even expending any effort.
In short, though most of these websites may be crap, don't let this book scare you into looking around if you wish. This is especially true for auto manufacturer websites, as looking on these sites will give you a lot of useful information about the car, such as what options come with various model packages. The only thing you need to concern yourself with is that I would STRONLY advise NOT using Internet Explorer as your primary web browser (try Firefox or Opera if you are on Windows). The reason why is not because of anything specifically to do with looking for cars online; it's just that IE is a very insecure browser and you're potentially putting yourself at risk every time you use it. See here for more info:
[...]
20 yrs since I first read this, and it still works.......2005-09-26
I first read this book back in 1985 when I bought a Mazda 626. Got it for exactly 3% over the dealer's invoice, and this was before the day when they'd share that very readily. I've bought several cars over the years with the knowledge I've gained from this book and I've NEVER felt taken. The sources of data are even better now than they were in 1985, so you can make sure you're not taken ever. What I've found is that as soon as the dealers know you know their cost and what's a fair price, you get a great deal fast. It's also one of the most entertaining books I've ever read that was teaching me something. Some of the best money you'll ever spend because it will pay you back 100 fold.
Buy at your own risk w/o this book.......2005-04-27
I read the 1st or 2nd revision of this book and bought my first new car in '94. It saved me $2500.00 on my Nissan Altima. I still have the car today. I have bought 2 other cars since then and it saved me money everytime. I am getting ready to buy another car and can't find my copy of the book. I am going to purchase the book again to brush up on my car buying skills. I am sure the dealer's have come up with some new tricks to get into my wallet in the last 12 years. I recommend this book to all my friends who are buying cars. Besides being informative, the book is humorous and is a fun read.
This Book Saved Me $700 Over The Dealers "LOWEST PRICE".......2005-04-13
If you are buying a car you need to get this book. The price of the book is nothing compared to what it will save you! The book saved me an additional $700 on the best price the dealer had offered me which was $1,100 off his asking price, for a total savings of $1800!
Not only did I save money, I got the car that I wanted, not the car that the salesman and manager wanted me to buy!
Knowing now what I learned from this book, I would have paid over $100 for for this book!
I like how the book had "stories" to illustrate the points. that made it much easier to visualize.
Books:
- The Human Mosaic
- The Masque of the Black Tulip
- The Red Tent
- The Slow Burn Fitness Revolution: The Slow Motion Exercise That Will Change Your Body in 30 Minutes a Week
- The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations
- The Wilding of America: Money, Mayhem, and the New American Dream (Contemporary Social Issues)
- This Moment on Earth: Today's New Environmentalists and Their Vision for the Future
- To Love, Honor, and Obey in Colonial Mexico: Conflicts over Marriage Choice, 1574-1821
- Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs: Official Companion Book to the Exhibition sponsored by National Geographic
- Vampire Kisses 4: Dance with a Vampire (Vampire Kisses)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- U.S. Marine Corps Scout/Sniper Training Manual
- Silenced: The Wrath of God Descends
- Daredevils and Daydreamers
- Evolving Eden: An Illustrated Guide to the Evolution of the African Large Mammal Fauna
- Let's Face It: 90 Years of Living, Loving, and Learning
- Microbiology: An Introduction
- Just Gus: A Rescued Dog and the Woman He Loved
- Fire on the Rim: A Firefighter's Season at the Grand Canyon
- In Their Own Words: Conversations With the Astronauts and Men Who Led America's Journey into Space a
- How to Do Everything Right the First Time!!!!!!: Ways to Succeed in Life
American Girls About Town: They're Not Just the Girls Next Door....
Goodnight Nobody: A Novel
Little Earthquakes : A Novel (Washington Square Press)
Good in Bed
Baby Proof
