Agent Books

I have spent no less than two-hundred hours scouring the internet for articles on how to write a query letter.
THE INFORMATION IN LUKEMAN'S BOOK IS THE CREAM OF THE CROP!
He graciously explains the basics while offering valuable tips that delve into the minds of those mystical creatures-- literary agents!
Thanks to HOW TO WRITE A GREAT QUERY LETTER, I feel extremely confident in the knowledge I've gained.
This book should be in every author's arsenal.

I heartily recommend this thorough essay. I had minor quibbles with a couple of details because of the genre in which I write, but Mr. Lukeman addresses those quibbles right in the essay.
Do your research, he instructs. He outlines what to research and why, and anyone who follows that advice alone won't have to worry about if they've got it right for their specific genre.
If every writer followed the advice in this essay then we'd have happier, less busy agents. Be part of the solution. Download the essay and write better queries starting today!

This is a very useful and practical ebook, because it not only details and reasons how to write such a letter from formatting to following up, but also reveals some astonishing facts, for example, a literary agent can receive 10,000 queries a year (pp. 5-6), 90% of all query letters are related to fiction (p. 38), and receive 10 rejections a day (p. 53). This short can serve as a handbook when writing a query.

This is a great little ebook. I can't believed it's being offered free of charge right now. I learnt a lot about not only writing great query letters, but business letters of any kind. Very useful and helpful advice. Excellent product.

How to Write a Great Query Letter provides an easy step-by-step process which concisely answers the question - What does it take to write a query letter that will get read? Lukeman offers ideas for research before you draft the letter, formatting and printing tips and reinforces the three-paragraph rule. Chapter seven discusses how fiction and non-fiction query letter should differ. Chapter eight deals with common makes made. This Amazon Short offers ideas on how to submit the letter and keys to following up. The checklists, examples, and clear verbiage will be helpful to new authors and those that have been in the game for a while. Definitely, a great deal for the price!

No hoaxes, no magic bullets, no promises. Natural Compounds in Cancer Therapy, by John Boik, is an up-to-date, scientific compilation of the state of research in the field of natural products in cancer treatments. This book is very important due to the tremendous growth in both research and interest in natural compounds over the past several years. The author is able to explain the how and why of over three dozen compounds that have confirmed anti-cancer activity.

I just started reading this book. If you were wondering what supplements might help your cancer, and why, this is the one to get. I was always baffled by dosage, but it helps with that too. That's not to mention the great biological information on what cancer is and how it works. You can download this for twenty five dollars from the publishers website.

I loved this book. I've worked in oncology clinical trials for years. I picked up this book to review for a friend, and admit that I was initially skeptical. But it's a wonderful book, well researched, well thought out... I was really impressed. Made me remember that half of the stuff we put in patients today originally was discovered when the NCI screened natural compounds for anti-cancer properties. Let's hope that this reflects the future potential of cancer treatment.

This is simply an outstanding book. I loved it and think that it can help lots of people whose oncologists just don't get it. The subject matter is fairly technical for the layman, as it is written by a first-rate researcher in the field. I think that this book was written for people who are comforatable reading slightly technical material (e.g., the Scientific American crowd). The author's explanations are very detailed. It is one of the best basic references that I have on general cancer biology. In a few places, the author seems to assume that the reader has taken at least introductory or even organic chemistry. If you haven't taken chemistry, I would still buy it. It is packed with great information, some of it taken from the author's own research. Also, the literature references are very new and relevant to the subject matter. A few areas could have been explained a little more clearly (the explanation of drug synergy was not the book's strong point).

John Boik's Natural Compounds In Cancer Therapy is a meticulous, scholarly, comprehensive, invaluable review of the actions and potential clinical use of more than three dozens carefully selected natural compounds. Nearly 4,000 references are included as Boik comprehensively and systematically examines the actions, pharmacology, toxicology, and potential clinical use of natural compounds as anticancer agents in the biological processes involved in cancer progress. Also very highly recommended is Boik's earlier work, Cancer And Natural Medicine: A Textbook Of Basic Science And Clinical Research (0964828006, $...).

Dr. Menuge has written an extremely important underappreciated book providing a crucial link between the emerging scientific theory of intelligent design and the mind. This book exists as something of a well-kept secret. But many readers interested both in the philosophy of mind and the continuing Darwin vs. design debate will find this book to be a significant intellectual achievement.

Menuge carefully and logically explains how reductionist, materialistic accounts of rationality, concepts and intentional states are intellectually incoherent and unsatisfying. He deftly explain how intelligent agency best explains reason and rationality. Menuge thereby defends the very idea of common sense. He persuasively responds to the arguments of Dennett, Dawkins, Churchland, and others.

An impressive conceptual defense of biochemist Michael Behe's design argument of irreducible complexity is provided by Menuge. From there, Menuge ably argues that the concept of irreducible complexity is evident is manifest through rational thought processes.

Many significant insights are provided along the way in Menuge's book. His analysis of the materialist "appearance of design" argument is particularly remarkable.

The writing is methodical, but it is often quite dense. There is some complicated terminology and concepts imbedded in the text, but careful attention will allow a reader to follow and benefit from reading.

Hopefully, more attention will be paid to the mind and mind-body issues related to the Darwin vs. design debate in the years to come. Menuge has made a worthy contribution to an important topic.

Menuge mounts a sophisticated philosophical argument against the philosophical underpinnings of Darwinism, scientific materialism. Menuge believes that Darwinism is living on the borrowed time of Enlightenment thinking which sees material as all that is and matters.

To do this he advances that scientific materialism cannot sustain itself coherently by seeing design as merely illusionary, not fully embracing either agency or intentionality, both necessary to understand the basic scientific method of hypothesis and challenging theories by planned experimentation and rationalization.

Drawing and engaging with the popular Darwinisist reductionist philosophies, Menuge takes on Strong and Weak Agent Reductionism, finding both of them incapable of logical defenses for both scientific investigation and mental processes that we humans assume to be real so that science can advance.

This is sophisticated philosophy, so those as this reader that do not regularly engage in its vocab find the sledding rugged finding such terms as "agency, synchronic, diachronic, epipheneomenalism, etc." However, the interested reader will find Menuge's ability to define and clarify these as he goes along with useful, common illustrative examples to aid.

A weak, inappropriate response is that this damages science, allowing religion to enter. This is the false move that Menuge identifies, showing an illogical move from scientific materialism to scientific attitude. He states: "scientific materialism is neither an implication nor presupposition of doing science." Both forms of reductionism he finds unable to maintain the rationality of science, having a unsupported bias against the nonmaterial.

He champions well a view of Intelligent Design that is coherent and upholds the scientific attitude and method without the false, illogical attachment to scientific materialism. We all have been highly suspect not of science, but of the philosophical basis of scientific materialism.

A book that must be dealt with by the Darwinists, so this reviewer will wait to see that response and Menuge and others reply.

Agents Under Fire defends a robust notion of intelligent agency and intentionality against eliminative and naturalistic alternatives. Angus Menuge thus demonstrates the interconnection between philosophy of mind and intelligent design.

Firstly, Menuge analyzes intelligent agents to see what they do when they produce designs. For example, Menuge observes that intelligent agents "exhibit intentionality" with "reasons for action" which are "reasons for the individual to do" that action. (pg. 27)

Menuge later tackles Behe's irreducible complexity arguments by arguing that they challenge reductionism in biology. In particular Menuge tackles head-on the objection that irreducible complexity can be produced via exaptation (i.e., co-option). Menuge finds five problems that co-optational-based accounts of the origin of irreducible complexity cannot overcome:

"For a working flagellum to be built by exaptation, the five following conditions would all have to be met:
"C1: Availability. Among the parts available for recruitment to form the flagellum, there would need to be ones capable of performing the highly specialized tasks of paddle, rotor, and motor, even though all of these items serve some other function or no function.
"C2: Synchronization. The availability of these parts would have to be synchronized so that at some point, either individually or in combination, they are all available at the same time.
"C3: Localization. The selected parts must all be made available at the same `construction site,' perhaps not simultaneously but certainly at the time they are needed.
"C4: Coordination. The parts must be coordinated in just the right way: even if all of the parts of a flagellum are available at the right time, it is clear that the majority of ways of assembling them will be non-functional or irrelevant.
"C5: Interface compatibility. The parts must be mutually compatible, that is, `well-matched' and capable of properly `interacting': even if a paddle, rotor, and motor are put together in the right order, they also need to interface correctly." (pg. 104-105)

Menuge also forays into Darwinian explanations for the origin of mind. According to Menuge, the Darwinian psychology produced by Dawkins, Dennett, and Pinker is unable to explain the integration, unity, direction, and reliability of rational thought. For example, "if it is assumed that the human brain evolved gradually from an ape's brain, then the vastly superior psychological ability of the former would require a long and gradual series of changes resulting in a much more complex brain." (pg. 135) But since "at the anatomical level, human brains are very much like ape brains" Menuge argues that "`relatively small alterations of brain structure must have produced very large behavioral discontinuities in the transition from the ancestral apes to us.'" (pg. 135, quoting Fodor) Menuge further concludes that "[i]f that is the case, cognitive capacities are not Darwinian adaptations that developed gradually" but are either "remarkable flukes of nature, by-products of changes that were selected for other reasons" or, as Menuge believes, they "require some nonnatural explanation." (pg. 135)

Drawing on his experience as both a philosopher and computer scientist, Menuge shows the reader that the materialist's attempts to rid science of all commitment to teleology can only result in incoherence. Instead Menuge presents his own unique argument for the legitimacy of intelligent design.

finally.. a complete challenge to evolutionary naturalism and one i *think* it'll find extremely hard to refute (as michael ruse almost admits in the introduction).. it goes hand in hand with victor reppert's excellent 'c.s. lewis's dangerous idea' and william hasker's 'emergent self' as cast iron theistic challenges to the materialist reduction of agency.. i'd also recommend c.s. lewis' 'abolition of man' simply as a frighteningly prophetic outlook of man's future once morals and values, much like consciousness/mind/soul here, are reduced to the material/natural.. after that its all brave new world, 1984 etc. and why not?

ok.. im off to listen to zao's new album the funeral of God..

I can see why Michael Ruse, in his forward to the book, did himself a great service by 1. reading it himself and 2. being wise enough to not venture a pre-emptive rebuttal attempt. In fact, I accept his invitation to read this astonishing and influential book. I found it to be direct, and well written, Angus Menuge deftly illustrating concepts well through his unique flair and subtle wit. First, a devastating blow to those who don't think anything is designed at all (Strong Agent Reductionism)...One particular gem of fact that leapt out at me was on page 15 of the preface... "If nothing is actually designed, then design is an illegitimate concept."..."It then becomes a serious problem how the intentional stance which attributes goals and designs to an agent, can be so successful in interpreting and explaining the scientist's own behavior in constructing theories and in (as we all say) designing theories". and another...same page... "....the very notion of explanation employed by the scientific materialist assumes the existence of agent, that is, beings capable of directing their behavior on the basis of representations of states of affairs, such as hypotheses, predictions, plans and designs" "Understanding therefore, requires intentionality" Comments mine here. >> And you guessed it! Intentionality implies..purpose..and purpose implies ....design. Here's another gem, sure to agitate the most committed materialist...from page 17 of the preface... "..design and intentionality are legitimate, but nonnatural categories. Given the fact that these categories are explanatory in the human case, it is dogmatic to declare a priori that they must fail in alleged cases of alient, superhuman, or divine design or intentionality. Following the recent work of Del Ratzsch, I argue that common arguments against invoking the nonnatural or supernatural in science are mistaken and rest, in many cases, on unexamined prejudices that derive their plausibility from an uconscious identification of empirical science with materialistic science." "If humans really do have goals, as the rationality of science presupposes, then it is surely possible that other agents have goals and that we may sometimes discover empirical evidence of their activity." Moving along now, to Chapter Three, pg.82, we find a logical argument to support the above stated, that " P1.If something has a purpose, then it is designed P2.Intentionality has the purpose of guiding behavior. P3.So intentionality is designed via P1 & P2 P4.Clearly, our intentionality is not designed by us, although it does enable us to convey our own designs. P5.Thus, our intentionality is the result of prior design via P3 & P4 P6.If (as Fodor reminds us) something is designed, then it is the product of intentionality P7.So, our intentionality is the product of prior intentionality via P5 & P6. Moving along to Chapter Four, pg.103, begins a point by point (5 points) logical rape of the co-optation argument that seeks to tear down the mountain of evidence for design in the bacterial flagellum. This alone is worth getting the book. and further, in Chapter Seven, pg.174 "But if human agents result in undeniably designed effects, it is dogmatic to exclude the possibility that other kinds of agencies are capable of doing the same thing" The above statement is so elegantly put...Beautiful... Moving on to a more well known contemporary topic in Chapter Eight, beginning on page 196, Menuge then does a take no prisoners attack and waste'm all demolition of some of the popular evolution myths, though mostly based on well know material also brought out in Well's "Icons of Evolution".. A gem here, page 196 "Scientists should not be tied to a dogmatic starting point, such as Dobzhansky's maxim that "nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution". Rather they should assert that, "nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evidence." Menuge then goes for the kill, taking apart some of the well known evolution myths and hoaxes meant to spread disinformation to the public, while keeping in line with scientist's presuppositional materialist perspectives (also known as methodological naturalism, scientism, et etc) 1. The 1953 Miller-Urey experiment, that was made under assumptions that the early earth had no oxygen, but since then, new evidence has shown that early earth did indeed have oxygen..thus, the Miller Urey experiment was "designed" or "manipulated" (though ignorantly) in a way that made the experiment appear to work, but only if the early earth did not have oxygen. Since the experiment worked..therefore (it was assumed), the early earth did not have oxygen! I never thought of these ambitious scientists as religious before, but I must say that it appears they were taking a great step of faith to expect anyone to believe their conclusions 50 years later. Then "Darwin's Tree of Life" is shown to be rootless, merely a vibrantly growing bush with no evidence to support it from the fossil record. In fact, the fossil record indicates a much different story... geologically and morphologically sudden appearances, not gradualism. Then, the "homologuous limbs" idea is put in it's grave (again), not to forget the Haeckel draws of embryonic development, long ago found to be faked. From pg.198 "Scientists of that time were not eager to check out Haeckel's work, so the bio-genetic law was "deduced from evolutionary theory rather than inferred from the evidence". Even today, biology textbooks continue to teach it. Next debunking was done on the Archaeopteryx, and then the Archaeoraptor (found to have "a dinosaur tail glued to the body of a primitive bird"). That bird must have flown like a lead balloon. :) Next debunking was on the bacteria and insect resistance adaptation evolution issue... already long known to produce adaptations without producing a new species. Even with the insects in question, fruit flys, an additional pair of wings resulted, but there were no muscles for the wings, which means it would have been a survival deficiency(like most mutations). I wish Menuge would have expounded more on debunking the evolutionist/materialist perspective of human evolution. From page 199 "Even more dogmatic, and an apt example of Bacon's idols of the theater, are the accounts of human evolution offer by paleoanthropologists. Here it becomes obvious that certain stories are appealing for ideological reasons and that, because fossils are not self-interpreting, they must be artistically placed into preexisting narrative structures" and a final quote..pg.199 "One can hear Winston Churchill as a biologist: "Never in the field of science have so many based so much on so little" (comment mine>> The above, undoubtably referring to those dogmatic evolutionists with their religiously fervent adherence to philosophical materialism) Well I have only mentioned small morsels of the raw and effective dismantling of materialism/scientism/philosophical materialism that Menuge presents in his unique and to-the-point manner. I highly reccomend this book.. and like Michael Ruse, I reccomend it be read by those who are critics of design.

This book is a great work on the inside on the real estate industry. The book tells what will happen in the future to the industry and why. I highly recomend this book to any realtors who plan on working for the next ten years.

BOUGHT, NOT SOLD will help you recognize the consumer quality revolution in real estate -- it's all about customer awareness and empowerment. You now have resources at your disposal at an unprecedented level when you engage the services of an exclusive buyers' agent. Note: the term exclusive is most important.

As a buyer, your purchase prospects should be unlimited -- don't accept anything less. An exclusive buyers' agent will make available properties for sale by owner and even properties that may not be listed for sale. You didn't know that? Neither did we, but now we know that an agency's listings, or even those in the local Multiple Listing Service are not a complete presentation of what is really on the market!

For example, as a seller, you employ a real estate agent to help you sell your property; as the employer, you determine the level of service to be provided by your employee, as well as the fee you agree to pay for those services. Ray Wilson advises you on how to select a real estate agent to represent your interests -- and gives you information that empowers you as an employer, with practical advice on defining your service expectations. Insight into avoiding traps set up by the traditional commission set up in favor of listing agents is invaluable -- this is where you really can save by understanding details seldom revealed to sellers or buyers.

This book is highly recommended by the webmasters of pru-florida.com -- Prudent Florida Home Buyers and Sellers, the realty web site for consumers.

This book is about the real world that they did not teach me or my classmates in law school! I have been in the business of real estate brokerage and buyer agency for close to a decade and I still found myself highlighting throughout the book.

Six years ago organized real estate was still in a struggle to preclude real estate brokers and agents from representing buyers. Today, every part-time, know-nothing with a license is a "buyers' agent." (The organized real estate industry is still fighting laws that force them to tell sellers and buyers who they represent!) What do you really know about agents, selling real estate, or buying real estate? What does "buyers' agent" really mean? What are the agents' and brokers' duties? What does "your" agent owe you? Why is a dual agency too often dual fraud?

If you are about to enter the real estate game, this book will tell you the rules. Every homebuyer and seller needs this book for his or her financial self-defense and for his or her peace of mind. Will it matter to you if "your" agent harms you from malice and greed or harms you from simple stupidly? Trust me, it is going to hurt either way. You can pay attorneys thousands of dollars after the problem or you can read this book and preclude the problems before they happen.

Author describes the ultimate in real estate buying service. Hiring a real estate company to represent you the buyer instead of using an agent who drags you around to all of the "in house listings". The exclusive buyer agent works only for your best interest. You hire the agent to help you buy the best home, save money, and avoid surprises. Having bought three homes and using an Exclusive Buyer's Agent on our last home, I know from personal experience what a godsend this is. A true EBA tells the buyer everything. This is so popular now that almost all agents claim to be Buyer Agents, look for the company that does not represent sellers, hence "exclusive" buyer agents. All others try to get you to buy the in house listing and think you shouldn't mind their conflict of interest.

There is too litle written that takes a consumer/buyer point of view in the home buying process. This book and good support will save many buyers thousands of dollars.

Every aspiring writer should read at least one book on the business aspects of writing and publishing. If you only read one, it should be this one. If you read two or three, this should be one of them. It's a valuable book for all writers, agented or unagented. If you do have an agent, you should have some basic understanding of the contracts your agent sends you and the realities of the publishing industry. You may feel you don't need to understand contracts if you're still trying to make your first sale, but you're going to be presented with a contract even for a magazine sale, and you should have some understanding of what you're signing. And you should understand some things, such as the libel rules, from the time you first start writing. Curtis is a veteran author and agent. For a small price, you get the equivalent of several hours of conversation with a top consultant.

The title is a bit misnomered since in effect an author cannot be his own literary agent and to access editors at the major publishing houses the screening of a representative is now required by most. That aside, the book is a treasury of essential insider information for not only the newbie but for an author like myself who after having seven books published is still struggling to get his work into print.

This is a wonderful book that describes the business side of literary agencies, publishing houses and the relationship between the two that makes the publishing wheel go round. He offers loads of contractual tips and explainations of your rights - which is very important.

I read his book when I was shopping my own book Never Trust A Man In Alligator Loafers. I still refer to it and brush up on contract knowledge and rights.

If you're wondering if you need a literary agent - my answer is yes!

Writers, find out about the business-side of writing with this easy read.

Find out how Agents decide which projects to take on and which to return with note: "sorry, not interested." And if a publisher wants to make a deal with you, find out how to understand the contract.

Best,
Shalla
www.shalladeguzman.com

The title "How to be Your Own Literary Agent" may be misleading for some people, who may take it to mean that by reading this book, one can skip the need of querying for agents. It doesn't help you get published; it says you still have to have agents to get into big publishing houses, but it does give an insider detailed view of the agent business and the publishing industry.

For the aspiring writer, most of the information is interesting but not useful, as the book itself admits - who in the world dares to bargain with the editor anyway, when he is ready to kiss the editor's feet for agreeing to publish his first book? However, for people who wish to become professional writers, such knowledge will certainly come in handy after one becomes published.

The book reads smooth and is extremely funny, making it a pleasurable bedtime reading. I finished it around 3 a.m. with a sore neck. For example, Mr. Curtis mentions this client who claimed to be a mafia hit man. As a result, he had little trouble getting his royal check on time - he'd simply call the publisher and say "if my royalty check ain't ready by noon tomorrow, I'm gonna marry you to a plate-glass window." (p.114)

As one can imagine, the publisher was quick to meet this guy's special needs. Then one day the poor guy was found shot dead outside some motel. Mr. Curtis didn't think the publisher did it.

I highly recommend this book to any writer.

Three young kids--Julian, his little brother Huey, and best friend Gloria, look through the Most-Wanted posters at the post office. They decide they'd like to investigate crimes and criminals. Later, in a parking lot, they see a dog locked in a hot car. A passerby says, "That's a crime!" and they know their calling has begun. Afterwards, they rescue a lost toddler from playing too near a water fountain. This story is too funny because the kids are so innocent: they go to a bar to look for crime, and are spotted by someone who knows their dad. Oh, boy, are they in trouble now! Next, a young man working in a fast food shop matches the description on a Most Wanted poster. They go to the police chief, who in turn, asks them for help in identifying this possible criminal, who turns out to be the chief's son! This delightful story is well-written, realistic and interesting, and depicts characters still in the wonderful freshness of youth. A beginning chapter book for hungry early readers, Diane Allison's illustrations help depict the African-American neighborhood, such as a scene in the park under the MLK statue.

Julian, Secret Agent was written by Ann Cameron. The main characters are Julian, Huey, and Gloria. They are all in the city. They are trying to find a criminal! I liked the book. You should read it!

I enjoyed reading this book because the illustrations are funny. The funny parts made me laugh so hard my stomach ached. I will tell a friend to read this book if they want a good laugh.

I enjoyed this book because it was very exciting. The author used vocabulary that was easy for me to understand. The illustrations were very detailed and matched the text. I recommend reading this book.

The story Julian Secret Agent is one of my favorite books because I love books with a little mystery. I can look at the silly illustration in this story and laugh for days. We are finishing our unit on realistic fiction books and this book was a pleasure to read.

A distillation of philosophical wisdom. An elegantly written concise little book that is truly excellent. For those philosophically inclined. Manna for the soul for those also religiously inclined. Not difficult, but may benefit by a little familiarity with some basic Thomist philosophy such as in Etienne Gilson's Philosophy of God.

This lecture by Norris Clarke is an extraordinarily clear and creative completion of St Thomas' work on the human person. It's a masterful little gem.

Clarke brings St Thomas's work right up to date by incorporating the insights of personalist philosophers into St Thomas's metaphysics. Thus, Clarke demonstrates that the human person is not just a substance but a relational substance. The relational aspect of being is not accidental to being but is a primordial constituent thereof. "To be fully is to be substance- in- relation" (page 14).

Listen to what Norris says about the Trinity (page 11 and 15):

"For what the doctrine of the Trinity means is that the very inner nature of the Supreme Being itself - is an ecstatic process (beyond time and change) of self communicating love: the Father, un originated possessor of the infinite fullness of the divine nature, communicates ecstatically his entire divine nature to the Second Person, the Son or the Word, in an act of loving self knowledge, so that the only distinction between them is the distinction of two complementary but opposed relations, Giver and Receiver. Then both together, in a single act of mutual love, pour forth the same divine essence again in all its fullness to their love image, the Holy Spirit, the third Person."

"Within the divine being, the relations and procession between the three Persons are not accidental but constitutive of the very nature of the divine substance. Substantiality and relationality are here equally primordial and necessary dimensions of being itself at its highest intensity".

Thus, as we are made in the image of God, our very being is relational. But, we are also substance, namely substance in relation. If we were merely constituted by our relationality, we would have nothing to communicate.

Norris brings out another important insight, namely that the Word shows us that receptivity is itself a positive aspect of perfection of being (page 20). This has important implications for the understanding of the masculine and feminine dimensions of human personality (page 21).

Norris goes on to examine St Thomas's work on the characteristics of persons, namely i) Personal Being as Self-possessing; ii) Personal Being as Self- communicative and relational and iii) Personal Being as self-transcending. Norris is very insightful - what is it about giving that we receive, why to find ourselves, do we need to lose ourselves, why do we need communion to be self affirmed? We are rooted in ourselves but we are also ecstatically transcendent communal beings.

And Norris notes that in out life journey, our self knowledge never reaches completion, wryly observing that even post 70 years of age, there are surprises (page 46). And again, Norris notes the relational aspects of being; "Everywhere our growth and development, positive and negative, are mediated by relations, - though, not we insist, simply reducible to them. (page 67). "In a word, the final goal and perfection of the whole universe is, literally, the communion between persons..." (page 80). "To be: is to be in communion" (page 82). "It is of great importance, then, for a healthy personal development to find some appropriate way of expressing to somebody all the significant levels of being and personality within us, concluding the deepest and most intimate. Paradoxically, it seems that what we don't share, we tend to lose hold of, what we don't give away we can't hold on to (page 92). "Why it must be that way that self-possession must keep pace with self expression is one of the deep mysteries of being (page 93). "Thus the Christian revelation of the Trinity is not abstruse doctrine for theologians alone but has a unique illuminate power as to the meaning of being... (page 112)."

Many thanks Fr Clarke for your brilliant insights!

I was a graduate student in philosophy at Marquette University when Fr. Clarke came to Marquette to deliver the annual "Aquinas Lecture." The book here is the written text of the lecture presented on a sunny but cool Sunday in March of 1993. I attended many lectures as a graduate student and remember only a few, this being one. Fr. Clarke spoke rather softly and you could hear a pin drop in the hall in which the talk was delivered. He was short, and smiled alot. The day after this lecture he came and spoke to the required course on St. Thomas Aquinas which I was in. I remember that talk very well also. He came in and said "I could talk about three topics today, I'll tell you the three topics and then as a class you decide what you want me to talk on." He then gave a unscripted hour and a half long talk on how Aquinas viewed human beings as the highest of material entities, and the lowest of spiritual creatures. I still remember that talk as well. This book is an excellent contemporary discussion of the Thomistic notion of what a human is, presented by one of the best living Thomists. I highly recommend it to Thomists and non-Thomists alike; it is a powerful presentation.

This book by one of the deepest philosophers alive deserves to be regarded as a successor to Martin Buber's "I and Thou". The author was kind enough to be my spiritual advisor and to validate an experience I had during my final semester at Fordham University many years ago.

Father Clarke was my teacher for in several courses at Fordham in the 1950's; I obtained a minor in Philosophy. He also was a spiritual advisor to me in a time of personal difficulty over matters of faith and belief. Finally, he was the most intelligent, modest and gentle man I can remember. If I had listened to him in 1958/9, I would have saved myself much grief, lapsing from the Church for 35 years ..and, who knows what else? Yet, even as we wrestled with my faith/belief, he reduced it all to a simple issue...as he was always able to get to the core of philosophical issues in his classes...and, he left me with hope and the offer to come to him whenever...even though I rejected his advice. He was a great teacher.
I never knew he was the giant in American philosophy that he was; sadly, after graduation from Fordham, I was commissioned in USAF, never returned to NYC, and my grad school career took other paths. Upon idly putting his name in Google, I saw all he had written and obtained 3 of his books, to include the above. It was wonderous to read him; I almost could hear and see him. As ever, he gave insights, makes you wrestle with concepts and shows how St. Thomas is relevant today. His writings, sadly too few are in print,must be experienced...and, I mean must be experienced/read. This one should lead to 2 of his books...they will also be well-worth your time.

I consider this book the most valuable resource in the field! If you are really interested in implementing kalman filter localization, particle filter localization or SLAM algorithms, this book really will help you. This book was my reference during my Master Thesis and the algorithms are so comprenhensive that I hadn't any problem to put them running.
I think the autors made a really good effort to explain complex mathematical concepts as clearly as possible. Great Job!

i think this book is very helpful for beginner of probabilistic robotics.
it has a lot of example and pictures :) for our understanding.
easy to learning.
If i met the chance to buy another book about probabilistic robotics, i am sure purchase this book.

have a nice day~~

This is really an amazing book - it more than fulfilled my expectations.
It starts from the very basics of probability theory and clearly derives
Kalman Filtering, Particle Filtering, Probabilistic Motion and Probabilistic
Perception in the first 6 chapters. From there it moves on to talk about
Localization and Mapping completely separately (which I appreciated, since
the two topics are far easier to comprehend independently) in chapters 7 and
8 and then finally introduces SLAM (the main topic of the book) in chapter
9. From there it goes on to discuss various SLAM algorithms and implementations,
and finally rounds out with planning and control (that is, the practical
application of SLAM algorithms).

I can't imagine a more well-researched academic work. Every point is backed
up with examples and illustrations, and every algorithm is derived rigorously.
Even better, the mathematical derivations are set apart from the main text
so that a more "casual" reader can skip over the derivations and still get
some benefit from the text (and believe me, the math parts of this book are
very involved!). The authors assume a working knowledge of trigonometry,
calculus and linear algebra (although you could likely make some sense of the
book even if you're rusty in any of these areas). However, since the book
is about probability, you'll probably need some background in probability
theory to get any value from this text. Chapter 2 contains a refresher on
probability theory, but I doubt it would be enough to decipher the later
chapters if you had no background in the subject. I found myself having to
go back and look up the details of Bayes Rule and multivariate conditional
probability more than once.

My only gripe with this book is that each chapter includes suggested exercises
(good) but no answers/cross-check (bad). Especially considering the open-ended
nature of the exercises, it's almost not worth attempting them (or even reading
them), since you'll never know if you got the right answer, or were even on the
right track. There's no "student supplement" (at least not as I write this),
so the exercises are fairly pointless.

However, that aside, this is one of the best academic books I've read in a very
long time. I had been struggling through academic papers from IEEE and ACM on
the topic of SLAM, and only comprehending about half of it before I picked up
"Probabilistic Robotics". After reading this book carefully (I actually had
to read it twice to get it all to sink in), I'm actually zipping through the
academic papers, and understanding everything I read. You couldn't ask for a
better introduction to probabilistic robotics and SLAM.

This is by far the best resource that I have found for collating a large number of internally consistent SLAM algorithms into a single volume. The book carefully leads the reader through the requirements of SLAM presenting one algorithm at a time, building upon the algorithms presented previously. This approach lends itself very well to develop-while-you-read. If you care to do so, I recommend reading it through once in its entirety and then starting over for the develop-while-you-read approach. The once through does a good job of presenting the big picture and giving you the opportunity to decide which primary SLAM path you prefer; Kalman and particle filtering are the two main approaches discussed. I'm currently implementing FastSLAM with particle filtering and have not run into any large hurdles using this book to lead the way.

The only major challenge that I've encountered is that it assumes a very good understanding of probability distributions. A good college statistics book makes a good companion for this read.

I also read Thrun's FastSLAM monograph. There's very little new information in that monograph which Probabilisitc Robotics doesn't already cover. After reading PR, Google becomes your best resource for finding the latest algorithms and code samples. Because even with the descriptive pseudo code algorithms, a perfect follow-up to this book would be "Probabilistic Robotics Implemented" with lots of code samples.

Uncertainty is an important issue facing intelligent systems.
Thrun, Burgard, and Fox have made important contributions to
this area of research. Probabilistic Robotics is a more narrowly focused text than the title might suggest. At 650 pages perhaps it could not be broader and yet do justice to the topics the authors want to cover. Perhaps the title should have been Probabilistic Robot Navigation. My other criticism would be the lack of executables

This book explains how chemotherapy is a poison and how it is truly ineffective in the majority of cancers. With a few exceptions of some very rare cancers, chemotherapy in fact often kills the patient - even before the cancer itself does. I feel very relieved after reading this book that if I were ever faced with this dreadful disease that I would know there are other options. This book alludes to that, as the author apparently has written several others books about alternative, non-toxic treatments. I am going to read his recommended cancer prevention books. I have heard doctors say that in many cases cancer CAN be prevented through diet and excercise as well as through cancer screening and regular health exams. I am going to do all that is within my power to live a healthy life, and this book is one step in validating that people do not always need to resort to poisons in order to live.

I read this book after my lumpectomy for breast cancer. My doctor was asking me to consider chemotherapy due to lymph node involvement. Since I have other health problems, I was questioning if the chemo would be a wise choice for me personally.
This book gave me alot of information and answered alot of my questions. I felt by reading it I gained alot of knowledge in regards to my health decisions.
I would highly recommend this book for anyone who is dealing with cancer.

If you or someone you know has cancer, get this book.

My mom was diagnosed with cancer 5 years ago. Her oncologist tried to manipulate her into getting chemo and radiation. Even the radiologist who had been consulted said that radiation would not help her cancer.

He had an agenda. He didn't care if it would help her at all. He was the director of the cancer center, you see. He was motivated by greed and the desire to make everyone bow to his wishes.

She still refused chemo due to the information I gave her.

A few years after her diagnosis, she was written up in a journal because her cancer was so rare. In this journal they said that her kind of cancer had NEVER responded to chemo or radiation!

There was no known evidence of chemo being a help to her, yet he was determined to shove it down her throat.

It is 5 years since diagnosis and she is fine. She takes a lot of cleansing herbs and Chinese herbs and is healthier now than she was 5 years ago.

Do not let the cancer industry manipulate and scare you into taking POISON. Chemo is not medicine. It is poison. It is a race to see if the chemo kills you first or if the cancer does.

Usually people die of the effects of the chemo and radiation, not the cancer. Yet family members are so misinformed that even if the patient does not want chemo, the family begs them to take it.

Dr. Moss reveals the real effect of chemotherapy far removed from the advertised benefits that are promoted by the medical establishment. It can open up a whole new world for the reader, one the drug companies would like to leave closed.

It takes a lot of courage for a cancer patient to challenge the "expert" knowledge of his or her cancer doctor. This book gives you that ability. Life-saving? Indeed.

Before you submit to any cancer treatment, you need to read all of this book. It is comprehensive and detailed about every type of chemotherapy and every type of cancer. Side effects are horrific and natural substances which offset them are actually discouraged. Virtually nothing has changed since this book was published in 1995 except some of the drug names.

In 2002, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that in the previous year, the average oncologist had made $253,000 of which 75% was profit on chemotherapy drugs administered in his/her office. Yet, surveys of oncologists by the Los Angeles Times and the McGill Cancer Center in Montreal show that from 75% to 91% of ongologists would refuse chemotherapy as a treatment for themselves or their families. Why? Too toxic and not effective. Yet, 75% of cancer patients are urged to take chemo by their oncologists.

Dr. Moss includes information on which cancers, all of them rare, chemotherapy works. This list has not changed since it was published by the National Cancer Institute in 1971. One of these is Embryonal Testicular Cancer, for which cyclist Lance Armstrong is the poster boy. Another is Wilm's Tumor. My 3-year old daughter was completely healed of Wilm's Tumor by removal of a kidney and treatment with chemotherapy 45 years ago.

Don't be fooled by terms like "response rate" or "5-year survival." For metastatic cancer (the only kind that kills), the success rate of chemotherapy (defined as long-term remission) is 3%.

Get Dr. Moss' book and dramatically improve your chances of recovery with the knowledge he gives you here.

Best Book Ever, if you're in to Gram or Rock/Americana bios. This is the 4th copy I've bought, 3 as gifts.

It's very easy to read, very entertaining, and you have to wonder how this guy has managed to live so long and so much. I had never heard of Phil Kaufman until I saw the movie "Grand Theft Parsons." I am a Gram Parsons music fan, but never knew his body was "liberated" and burned in Joshua Tree, CA. Thinking this can't be true, I researched on the internet, found this book and decided to check it out.
The stories are funny and unique, and I'm a little less naive about some of these people and the times they lived in.

I love this book! It's the funny and heart-felt inside story of the life and times of a rock music insider.Heck,he was the manager for some of thee best darn musical acts in the history of rock and country music.Period.He was not just their bodyguard,he was their friend and mentor as well.He laments about not being there to protect Brian Jones from the druggy landscaper ,who beat him over the head with a shovel.Jones was then dumped into a swimming pool,to make it look accidental.Phil Kaufman was earlier fired by the Stones ,that crazy and care-free Summer of 1969.It's not his fault Brian later died.It's amazing their musical act is still top-notch after touring for fourty plus years. Later ,Phil helped Manson record an album called ,"LIE". Everyone in the music industry,did not want anything to do with Charles Manson.And even Terry Melchoir and Dennis Wilson gave up on Manson and his Family,when the sessions began to fall apart.(Manson sounded more like Bobby Darrin the Crooner than a psychodelic hipster.)Manson's music is awesome ,yet their sinister religious beliefs led to the terrible slayings that landed most of the Family ,on ice .Manson was very charasmatic and had impressive song writing and singing ability.Yet, his age played a strong barrier in an industry obsessed with beauty and youth.Phil blames himself for the LaBianca murders,because Phil was one of Manson's targets.Phil was not home ,at his bungaloo,so the Mansonites went next-door to the LaBianca's mansion.So,the urban myth goes.It turns out that Leno LaBianca owed large amounts of money ,in gambling loses .He was using money from his super-market empire to cover some of his loses.I think Manson's heroin supplier was aware of this.And directed the Mansons to go next-door,if Phil was not at his bungaloo.Of course,'someone' had called Phil away from the scene ,earlier that evening.It's no surprise and no one blames Phil for leaving the hippy-dippy L.A. scene for the real Music City of Nashville. -Ps-Gram(O'Kelley)Parsons died way to soon.Gram Parsons was like the real-life Keith(Cassidy)Partidge in many ways. -If you know the story, behind the music, it adds to the enjoyment of reading this excellent musical autobiography.Bright Blessings and God Speed to Phil Kaufman.Buy this book !

Incredible tale of an amazing guy. We have known each other for over 60 years and I can vouch for the accuracy of his story. Many men lead lives of quiet desperation - not Philip Kaufman. His every moment is an adventure filled with humor and exuberance.

I first became interested in Phil Kaufman after watching the bonus footage section on the DVD "Grand Theft Parsons". After a little internet searching I came across this book. I am so glad that I did! What an amazing story. If there weren't photos & liner notes to back up this man's tale one might not believe it. Phil, known as "The Mangler", has gone from being a former inmate & friend to a pre-Helter Skelter Charlie Manson to the Executive Nanny of the Rolling Stones. He has been an inspiration to the likes of Frank Zappa & fulfilled the now infamous last wish of his friend & colleague Gram Parsons. He has traveled the world with such acts as Joe Cocker & long time friend Emmylou Harris. He has acted in Hollywood, riden across England by Harley & has Mangled his way through rock & roll. His body's tattoos seem to be as colorful as his vocabulary & memory. In the words of actress Elizabeth Ashley, the Mangler seems to truly be "terribly funny, mythological & charismatic". To read him is to love him. Even if you are not interested in the music industry, you have to read this man's story. It will keep you laughing & dazzled the whole way through. May Phil continue his Mangling ways for many years to come!