Away

Running Away to Sea attempts to take the reader on an around the world journey. While I'm sure Douglas Fetherling made the actual trip, he left the reader at home.

Mr. Fetherling has done his research on all the places he visits. He knows, and relates, the history and recent political climates of the countries, islands, and areas he passes through on his round the world trip. He spends comparitively little time describing his trip and the people he meets aboard and ashore. When I picked up this book I expected some real escapism. To have my imagination transported to the far away places that I daydream about. Sub-titled, Around the World on a Tramp Steamer, I was ready to relax while I leaned on the starboard rail and watched the world go by. I was ready for adventure and unforgettable characters. Unfortunately I got a history and current events lesson. This is, of course a well written book by a seasoned author. It just wasn't what I expected.

I picked this up because it had a great premise. The book, however, did not live up its title or subject. There was quote after descriptive qoute from other authors about the far away places that Mr. Fetherling touched and some of the historical references were inciteful, but there just wasn't much meat concerning what the author saw and felt during HIS journey. He shyed away from the other passangers and it doesn't seem that he was friendly with the crew. His acount makes it seem like he took up space and made use of the oxygen around him for four months. His trip and the divorce that it probably contributed to was a bit on the depressing side. This is not why I read travel/adventure literature.

I found Running Away to Sea somewhat patronizing toward the reader, but still readable. Fetherling obviously looks at the world through glasses that are skewed to the political left. I'll wager Gore Vidal is one of his favorite authors. I envision Fetherling as a type of mildly depressed, chic-left, middle-aged, pseudo-intellectual ex-hippie who, if the truth were known, must grudgingly concede that the continuing demise of Communism has left us all far better off. His not so subtle put downs of every nationality except his own (Canadian) are particularly irritating. Being a good liberal, he is quick to advertise his holier-than-thou disdain for racism, but I find his arrogant and condescending attitude towards the French, British, and (especially) Americans to be a mild form of prejudice in itself. Too much of the book involves development of historical background for the ports his ship visits - a fact compounded by irritating editorializing from his socialist perspective. Still, the book flows well, and the reader anxiously anticipates each new chapter. I would buy Running Away to Sea again.

OOOPS, what a surprise, it is a "flip through" book, I placed it back in the package to return, but decided even that would take more energy than I needed to give it. Sorry, I was truly dissapointed. I was taken by the title and thought it would teach numerous pressure point sights that could be used in easing the pain. Sad to say this was not the case. Very, very surprised to see it on your site.
As you can tell, the words "Press-Away" are inportant in Fibromyalgia and similiar syndromes, and the word "book" refers to more than a mear few pages of near to 3X5 material. Thank you for this opportunity to review.

I received this book after suffering with migraine headaches for more than a year. Using the techniques in this book relieved the migraines and I have used the same techniques for sinus and other pain! Easy to carry with you, worth the price!

If there was ever an advocate for the mentally disturbed is is the author of this book.

After reading most of Mr. Newton's books one major theme keeps popping up. Criminals are good and should be worshipped and the Police are bad. What is this guy on?

If you're a big fan of the common criminal you should really enjoy this book. If, however, you are normal, you might want to skip this one.

I first began reading true crime books when I was a sophomore in High School. Although I cannot recall the author, I will never forget the name of the book: Perfect Victim. The book was about the shocking kidnap and brutal sexual torture suffered by Colleen, (I believe the last name was Stanton), at the hands of the young couple who abducted her. Since that time nearly four years ago, I have read nearly two dozen true crime books, my favorite among them being In Cold Blood by Truman Capote and Bitter Blood by Jerry Bledsoe. When I purchased the book Stolen Away, I was looking forward to reading it, because not only was it about the first use of the controversial insanity defense, but it also occurred in the late 1920's, and I have always considered history to be one of my favorite subjects. I felt the author, however, didn't do a sufficient job of telling the henioius story of how young Marion Parker was abducted and killed. I almost stopped reading the book during the first few chapters when the only topic covered for page after page was the mental problems that the killer's mother had endured throughout most of her life. I knew a brief mention of it was important in understanding why the defendant ended up the way in which he did, but I began to feel the book was written about Eva Hickman instead of her son, Edward. Although this, among a few other things, is what stands out as being one of the most disappointing elements of reading this book, I felt the biggest letdown was the fact that the author told all the important facts of the story in the very beginning and left no room for the climax that I have always looked forward to in every other true crime story I have read. This book was a major disappointment, and it has made me decide to never buy another Michael Newton book again.

I wasn't sure what this book was about when I picked it up. I had never heard of the case. Soon after I found myself reading it nonstop. It was well-written and full of information. Michael Newton did a great job.

If anything technology has been good for society . Before the dawn of technology we had no electricity, no computers and awfull healthcare. Typical hippie philosophy to attack thge western world and technology. If you are a hippie, commonist or other technology hating tree hugger, then you will love this book. If you have a sane mind and civilized disposition, then you will realize that this book is filled with garbage. Not Recommended.

As a true Luddite, I refuse to recognize the technology of printing and book-making. How many trees have to die before we stop printing books? Books, and this is a book make no mistake about that, have helped us to lose our cultural identities by subverting the art of storytelling.

For those puzzled by the motivations of anti-globalization protestors, this book provides insight into the beliefs that drive these movements. As is usual in discussions from within this movement, the participants in the conferences summarized by this book present an entire laundry list of things that they oppose. These contain the expected capitalism and nuclear power but also include, perhaps surprisingly for those outside of this movement other things including television, computers etc.

This extensive list of unacceptable technologies and systems confuses people who try to understand the mass protests which thereby seem unfocused an pointless. However reading this book shows that they all stem from a common root. This is a movement that is opposed to individuality. It has been created by people who find their identity in community. They see technology as Jacques Ellul saw 'technic' as creating the 'one best way' which destroys local communities and leaves the individual without a system of belief with which to structure his/her life. The long of things thy oppose from the WTO to globalization to television are all things which they see as antithetical to the community-derived beliefs which they see as the basis for any fulfilled life.

The book's subtitle is "A New Vision for the 21st Century.' The vision that these people have is not new. Indeed it is entirely conventional. They find meaning in their lives by the ability toi live within a comforting structure. In this they are very similar the 'family values' movement. Indeed the opposition that both of these movements have to television are based on the same root of damage to community. Both movements look to the community to define values. They prefer the legitimacy of traditional and shared beliefs to what they see as reckless and dangerous innovations that they fear will leave people rootless. This is most evident in the chapter 11 which discusses the role of woman and the effect of technology on that role. There is real discomfort in the description of the discussions about thuis topic with the difficulty in making feminism compatible with a belief in a strongly structured community. The participants use the jargon of feminism but as the editor points out the largest number of them support strongly defined gender roles. This is obviously incompatible with the goals of feminism which is a powerful political force and a strongly legitimizing set of beliefs for modern activists.

To see the lengths to which members of this movement can go to render these incompatible belief systems compatible, I recommend the book 'Gender' by Ivan Illich. 'Gender' is not a deep book by any means nor does it provide any significant set of facts or analysis. Rather it is interesting in the lengths that Illich goes to try to show that culturally-defined gender roles are not what they seem when the come from traditional communities. Illich tries to declare that whit is black if it comes from traditional communities and fails in a very spectacular way.

The book is a summary of the contributions to conference discussions. With this, it cannot be the lear development of any one set of ideas. It does give an overview of the points of view of many of the thinkers in the movement. However it is more of a book for sampling than fro deep study. It is a collection of extemporaneous remarks and the drifting focus of a conversation. The book 'Liquid Modernity' by Zygmund Baumann is a much better description of the ideas that technology is depriving people of structure that gives meaning. An interesting counter- by Paul Levinson argument to can be found in the book 'Soft Edge' which argues that community and technology are co-evolutionary and that any technology that is dehumanizing cannot succeed. It will hinder the community that created it and will thus be eliminated by selection.

This book is interesting as a sampler to discover the concerns of the people, in this movement. In this, it is well worth reading. However it is not a book of scholarship or even of clearly expressed ides. It is more of a collective rant - a cry of anger and despair at forces these people see as challenging their defining beliefs. For clear analysis and insight one has to go elsewhere. Ellul, Postman and others can provide an analysis based on the ideas presented here in a much more lucid coherent and cogent way.

This book is worth reading for anyone who wishes to understand the motivations of the anti- globalization protests. However it is as unfocussed and full of anger as that movement is. It is worth reading not for its ostensible content but as a witness to the attitudes and belief that drive that content.

This book, supposedly adding something to our knowledge of the leaders of Nazi Germany, in fact adds nothing at all. The information on Hitlers Parkinsons Disease is already well known to historians. Dr Lattimer also maintains that Hitler was informed that he was suffering from this disease at about the time of the fall of Dunkirk and that it thus precipipated his decision not to invade England and to invade Russia instead because he had been told that he had only five years to live. This is pure conjecture. No evidence is offered for this view. Even more fanciful arguments are offered by Dr. Lattimer about Goering's possible role as a successor to Hitler and the outcome of that eventuality. He also offers, in appendix one, an account of Lindberghs examination of German air an missile technology before an after the war. This entirely gratuitous appendix is simply a vehicle for Dr. Lattimer to let us know that he knew Lindbergh. In fact the whole book is simply a collection of "I was there" recollections and highly speculative pronouncements on the possible course of the war without any historical merit whatsover.

This book was written by a US army doctor who was at the Nuremberg Trials and consequently came into contact with the Nazis there who awaited justice. His book proports to give away secrets of these infamous men but for the most part it only gives impressions that the author and other staff had. He does make a compelling case that Hitler had Parkinson's Disease but his claim that this is what caused Hitler's infamous blunders of WWII (such as invading the USSR) is highly debatable at best. The book's true value (and the reason I gave it 3 stars) lies in the photos of the massive collection of Nazi artifacts the author gathered. From Hitler's darned socks to Ribbentrop's medals, any WWII buff or collector will be impressed with Mr. Lattimer's collection.

In conclusion, if you want to see photos of items that once belonged to top Nazis like napkins Hitler used, then pick up this book. If you want an in-depth analysis of the infamous Nazi leadership and the secrets they had, this isn't the book for you.

My 10 month old son really enjoys this book. The format is nice, with large pages, little writing and great pictures. I bought it because I want him to be exposed to many parts of the world and its people. But a few things trouble me: 1) Why are only the boys traveling to the exotic places and the little girls just sit in the audience? 2)Why are there no locations in Africa? There is good diversity of the little boys and girls, but it seems the places could have been a little more representative of the globe. I think Ms. Lobel could have lost Tulsa and substituted Timbuktu. 3) The letter C is very disturbing - "Craig crawled in Cracow". And Craig has a Star of David on his hat. What are we to think of this? Is this implying that Jews should be crawling? Or is it some sort of not-so-subtle historical reference with no context within which to interpret it? I find it a little out of place in a childs book. Let us worry about explaining man's inhumanity to man when the kids are a little older please.

In summary, a nice book, but I really have trouble getting past these items.

This is a 1980's documentary of a vet's pelican rescue. Style points for the funky font . Gives a good overview of how to rescue a single bird, but doesn't exactly relate to people who do so on a grand scale, or say, after an oil spill.

Look Away is a work of alternate Civil War history. Alternate history needs several qualities to be any good, and one of the things it needs is a basis in real, believable history. Unfortunately, Look Away barely slides by in this regard. Essentially, it's 1864, and European countries have formed a UN-like body which is interfering, as rather violent peacekeepers, in the American Civil War. I don't find this plausible: the UN seems like a post-WWI idea to me, not like a mid-19th century conceptual possibility. The characters as well have an anachronistic quality: their thoughts and speech do not, for me, contain the flavor of the 19th century. The book is very short, and it seems to me that such an enterprise should really take up a whole novel -- come on, *someone* has to write a decent "if the Civil War lasted longer/went differently" novel; there hasn't been a readable one since Kantor's well-written but Pollyannaish effort, and yes, I'm including Turtledove. Because of Look Away's brevity, character development, especially the main character's breakdown at the end, seems unsupported by events.

Having said that, this book has qualities I like: spare, stark language and a grim ending. While I didn't find the international peacekeeping force believable, I did like the idea of foreign intervention in the war, and the host of both foreign and local armed groups and militias that springs up; the Floridian imperialists were amusing, though only given a throw-away mention. It seems, unfortunately, that the author has more than enough literary talent to write a good alternate Civil War novel, but let laziness get the better of him.

They have missed the point. When asked by the IRS to conduct an audit of your return, the very best thing to say is, "Is it mandatory or voluntary for me to let you see my private books and records?" Just watch, they will never answer - because it's VOLUNTARY! The courts have said so! It HAS TO BE voluntary, otherwise it would be a violation of your 4th and 5th amendment rights! You NEVER have to let the IRS see your records - even if they send you a summons, all you do is show up and claim the 5th each time they ask a question, or to see a document!! The book never tell you this!! So it is ultimately not helpful.

If you want to protect yourself against the IRS, you should start by asking why you need the protection to begin with. Books like this are all about trying to "play the game" as shrewedly as you can. This is absurd, since you're playing odds as much as you are playing the game. the IRS doesn't care about you or the Constitution, it cares about quotas and scaring you into submission.

Freedom is your birthright as an American. SEIZE IT! Read "Freedom in Chains" by James Bovard and "Your Money or your Life" by Sheldon Richman and "Why we mustAbolish the income tax" by Nelson Hultberg. These books point the way to freedom rather than more pointless submission.

Don't be fooled by its catchy title. It's nothing close to that. The 50 chapters are basically 50 stupid poems/sonnets/articles which are neither humorous or funny. Lets look at part of the proem:

"50 Days To A Better Sense of Humor is not a how-to guide." Huh? If I knew that I wouldn't buy!
"Let's face it. Either you have a sense of humor or you don't." [Wrong]! Humor is a skill that can be learned, like almost everything else.
"I find it hard to sleep at night knowing that some people find this book less funny than a phone book." I really think it is!

Lets look at some parody "poems", if you would call it that:

Day 31:
Tell Me More

Tell me more
I want to know,
I see, I see
Is that so,
Yes, yes
That could be
Of course, of course
You deserve to be free,
But don't rush out
Think about it logically,
Consider all options
That's the key,
You could do worse
I agree,
But what you want
Is a fantasy,
If I were you
I would flee,
I know, I know

There is no guarantee,
I wish there was easy solution
On which we could agree.

I know you've suffered
I know you're hurt
I know you're confused
And feel like dirt

Yes, it could be the end---
But no matter what
I'll always be your friend.

Sure, any time you're
Dragging on the floor,
Or pulled apart
By a tug of war,
Feeling like you've been hit
By a two-by-four,
Or crushed by a giant meteor---
Well, just call me up
And tell me more.

Can anyone laugh at that? I can't. Maybe I'm less literate, but I don't think one has to be highly educated in English Literature to be humorous!