Governments

The specific edition I am reviewing is the Heffner addition which is a 300 page abridgement. I also own an unabridged edition but I have only read Heffner cover to cover. What is amazing about de Toqueville is how uncanny many of his observations are over a century and a half later. He accurately predicted in 1844 that the world's two great powers would be the United States and Russia. He aptly pointed out that Americans are a people who join associations and he is so right 156 years later. Although there are both religious extremists on both ends, ie fundamentalists and atheists, he was dead on that, as a whole, we are a religious society but that our religious views are moderate. De Toqueville shows how American characteristics evolved from democracy as opposed to the highly class structered societies of Europe. From de Tocqueville, it could have been predicted that pop culture, such as rock music etc, would develop in America because the lack of an aristocracy causes a less cultured taste in the arts. In a thousand and one different ways, I found myself marveling at how dead on de Toqueville was. Most controversially, those who argue that we have lost our liberties to a welfare state might well find support in de Toqueville. Here, 100 years before the New Deal, he forsaw that a strong central government would take away our liberties but in a manner much more benign than in a totalitarian government. There are certain liberties that Americans would willingly sacrifice for the common good. Critics of 20th century liberalism in the US might well point to this as an uncanny observation. By reading "Democracy in America," the reader understands what makes Americans tick. De Toquville was an astute observer of who we are as a people and should be read by all educated Americans.

I want to note that there are several editions of this great work and in deciding which to buy, be aware that each has a different translator. I feel Heffner's translation is slightly stilted but, he did such a wonderful job in editing this abridgement that it, nontheless, deserves 5 stars.

So many aspects of the deepest and most shallow in America are laid bare by a Frenchman who came to The States in 1835 to find for himself whether individuality, freedom and liberty could survive the dangers of equality and democracy. "[The nation] depends on [its people to determine] whether the principle of equality is to lead them to servitude or knowledge, to freedom or barbarism..." writes de Tocqueville. Perhaps, contrary to modern thought, only an outsider can so accurately assess a people. But de Tocqueville is eminently balanced, overall in favor (in my opinion) of what he saw, and thus dismissed in France upon his return.

He notes an American addiction to the practical rather than theoretical, a pragmatic concern, not for the lofty and perfect, but the quick and useful, with relentless ambition, feverish activity and unending quests for devices and shortcuts. Resulting from a requirement for survival on the frontier, these observations are the good, bad and ugly of our modern selves; Resourceful technocrats expanding comfort, health, safety or wealth by anyone with ingenuity and persistence; Our exchange of youth for old age in the workplace, improving our standard of living at the expense of our quality of life; America's shallow nature of thought, sealed up in sound-bites.

De Tocqueville finds in the sacred name of majority, a tyranny over the mind of Americans as oppressive and formidable as any other tyranny - arguably more so by virtue of its acceptance. Where monarchs failed to control thought, democracy succeeds. Opinion polls our politicians subscribe to have a power of conformity. "I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America," he writes. "It is as if the natural bond which unites the opinions of man to his tastes, and his actions to his principles is now broken..."

Of literature and art we see why so much pulp crowds the bookshelf and bamboozles fill our galleries; "Style will frequently be fantastic, incorrect, overburdened and loose - almost always vehement and bold. Authors will aim at rapidity of execution more than at perfection of detail... The object of authors will be to astonish rather than to please, to stir the passions more than charm the taste."

A fascinating evolution of perception - of self and state - unfolds as the democratization of education, property ownership and the vote expands. Wiping away the trappings of privilege transforms the serfdom mindset. We see the perception of opinion as both scoffed when originating in individuals other than ourselves, and, conversely, the worship of opinion as a manifestation of majority rule. Americans, once lionizing the intrepid individual, instead took a turn to having most pride in their sameness. Armed with this understanding, today we see each group define itself by its signals - body language, speech cadence and inflection, vocabulary and dress. Today our youth have surfer speech, rap speech, gangster dress, the hooker look. Business embraces managerese, like "due diligence", "proactive", "right sizing", "leveraging assets to meet market demands". Politicians use the word "clearly" so often that what they mean is not clear. Every group has its code words, actions and look. A time consuming process of investigating the revealed character of individuals is exchanged for quicker, simpler signs.

The climax is reached with de Tocqueville's troubling "either or"; "We must understand what is wanted of society and its government. Do you wish to give a certain elevation of the human mind and teach it to regard the things of this world with generous feelings, to inspire men with a scorn of mere temporal advantages, to form and nourish strong convictions and keep alive a spirit of honorable devotedness? Is it your object to refine the habits, embellish the manners and cultivate the arts, to promote the love of poetry, beauty and glory?... If you believe such to be the principle object of society, avoid the government of democracy, for it would not lead you with certainty to the goal.

"But if you hold it expedient to divert the moral and intellectual activity of man to the production of comfort and promotion of general well being; if a clear understanding be more profitable to a man than genius; if your object be not to stimulate the virtues of heroism, but the habits of peace; if you had rather witness vices and crimes and are content to meet with fewer noble deeds, provided offences be diminished in the same proportion; if, instead of living in the midst of a brilliant society you are contented to have prosperity around you... to ensure the greatest enjoyment and to avoid the most misery... then establish democratic institutions."

This is one of the best novels of the 19th century. Most people do not recognize the significance of this book, however its relevance to modern literature cannot be emphasized more. Ironically, this book has apparently
gained quite a following among political scientists, historians, and pediatric endocrinologists, however this is only because of a misinterpretation. Many believe De Tocqueville to have been what he claims to have been, a gentleman, statesman, diplomat, and liaision for France to the United States. De Tocqueville was none of the above, in fact he was a petty criminal from Marseille who was arrested in 1832 for stealing horseshoes from a prominent businessman's steed. While in jail he was mixed up with political prisoners from a recent revolt and sent to Martinique to serve a sentance of 5 years hard labor. Unfortunately, De Tocqueville had a hot temper and allegedly killed an Arawak Indian in a fight, and being that this was the last known Arawak Indian on the island was sentanced to life in prison. It was here that he met a young Victor Hugo, a criminal justice student studying colonial jail system and theory, who De Tocqueville befriended. Hugo taught him to write, which Alexis did to pass the time and to allay his growing madness. Upon his death, guards found thousands of pages of text stuffed under his soiled mattress, some of which we now know to be Democracy In America. It was part of a larger epic about a French diplomat named Arnaud Venilas who wrote political treatises and sold them to British merchants to feed his opium addiction.
I wholeheartedly disagree with the modern interpretation of this work and hope that eventually this mini story will be put back into the Venilas context as De Tocqueville had originally intended.

I liked this treatise on the life of Churchill. His wilderness years when those who treated him with disdain thought of him as a wash up.

This was his time to bide his time, in order to gain his composure for his future use.

Anyone in the oxbow of life can gain insights on how to use time rightly until the attainment of a goal.

Churchill did not just bide his time, he used it to his advantage.

One day I hope Manchester finishes volume III.....

William Manchester's first Churchill volume covers the first fifty eight years of Winston's life. His second, "Alone," covers just eight. Assuming that there will be a third, it will cover the final quarter century, including most of World War II and Churchill's two spells as Prime Minister. To the elementary observer, these divisions seem somewhat out of sorts.

It's only by reading that middle volume that we understand just how critical those eight years were. Above all, "Alone" is a morality play -- the best one I know -- about what happens when democracies fail to confront aggression. At no other time in the 20th Century were so many people so wrong about a matter as grave as the Nazi buildup in the 1930s. Only Winston Churchill and a few of his cohorts disagreed at the time.

Early in the book, Manchester briefly lays out a powerful case for Britain's aversion to confronting Germany. Britain sensed the unfairness of the Versailles "diktat," and reacted strongly against it. To a great degree, London was fed up with France's insolence after the war, both in its lust for revenge against Germany, and in the flaccid disillusionment of Paris intellectuals. At the same time, Great Britain was a nation cornered by two bloodthirsty wolves -- Nazism and Bolshevism. In order to defeat the other, one would have to be appeased. Being a country dominated by aristocrats, Britain chose to enlist Hitler as a bulwark against Communism. In doing so, they ignored the basic fact of geopolitical proximity: only Germany, abutting France and a few hundred miles away from Britain's shores, had the capacity to strike at the West. Britain's aristocrats bet wrong, and Churchill, ever the "traitor to his class" immediately recognized it.

Churchill's story also holds valuable lessons for us today. By nature, Churchill was naturally aggressive, and as such, Manchester writes that he saw exactly what Hitler was up to. Pacifists often distrust such assertiveness, even in a democracy. In fact, assertiveness in defense of democratic values is almost always the right foreign policy. One can have assertiveness for good, or assertiveness for evil, and one must choose it for good. In this way, Churchill's "black and white" Manichean worldview has truly stood the test of time.

This, the second volume of Manchester's Churchill biography, continues the extraordinary story of the British prime minister up to 1940. And as with the first volume, it is incredible reading, perhaps the best biography written about anyone. Manchester's gift as a writer is absolutely astounding. One feels there is nothing he does not know about his subject or the subject's time. Particularly interesting are the quotes he includes, which when I first read them I had to resist framing for my library wall. And almost as interesting as Churchill are the myriad individuals who surrounded him, exhumed here by Manchester for a final and proper setting of the record. Ultimately, we come to Churchill's greatest contemporaries, Chamberlain, Roosevelt, Stalin, and Hitler, and are drawn with such expertise into the relationships that we are left wondering how it will all turn out. But of course we do know, and it is with growing dismay and sadness that we let Manchester take us to the end of the book, with the detailed recounting of the terrible stumbling of the West's leaders toward WWII and the end of an era. Of course, this is the beginning of Churchll's greatest challenge, to be continued in the as yet unpublished third volume, but we still feel regret for having lost to time such an able and important man. With the last page, our respect for him has us near tears with the knowledge that the world, more than ever, needs more Churchills and will not have them.

For anyone interested in third party politics, this book offers a good snapshot of the Natural Law Party, which, along with the Libertarian, Reform, and Constitution parties stands as one of the "major minors" -- often on the ballot, with a fairly professional operation. That said, much of the book drags, as Roth preaches about NLP views on several issues at great length, and gives short shrift to the party's actual plans for future electoral action. Perhaps silliest -- though most telling about what a minor party must face -- is a lengthy section about the creation and publicity of just one press release.

Robert Roth has put into plain language what the Natural Law Party is all about. What is more, his account of events during the last presidential campaign and beyond is as entertaining as it is informative. This is a book you'll find hard to put down. Once you finally do, you'll find your thoughts about the political process have been changed forever, and for the good!

There are few 'must reads' in the field of politics, particularly if you're not a politician. However, this book is a 'must read' for anyone who is even thinking of casting a vote. Finally, there is a breath of fresh air on the American political scene, with a voice we can understand, because it is our own.

I really enjoyed this book. Robert Roth does an excellent job of entertaining and informing the reader on the need for more choices in our own political system. He shows how, in spite of all the hype that we are the greatest democracy on Earth and export democracy around the world, but in fact the US is really one of the least democratic nations when it comes to our own political and governmental systems. The iron grip of the two party system virtually guarantees that no new ideas or voices can be heard in any political forum or debate and how this is to the determent of the nations as a whole. He gives wonderful examples of what third parties and what the Natural Law Party in particular can do to bring a fresh and vital breath of new, simple and proven ways to look at our nation's challenges. And he does so in a very entertaining way! I encourage everyone to read this book not only for their own benefit but also for the benefit of the country.

The work of Hakim Bey is well-known in that other american world, the "underground" society, the one of subculture, silent resistance and anarchy. But slowly it has been bubbling to the surface, often in unexpected places. The novel and film Fight Club, surely shows an affection for poetic terrorism, an idea rooted in Bey's ontological anarchism and closely related to the situationist tactic of detornement. T.A.Z. is not the property of any philosophy but chaos and elegant disorder. Sure, there are aspects of anarchism, chaos thinking, situationist leanings, but that is just a symptom of the spectacle and is such precisely because of it. These essays all point to a way out of this spectacular society, but the first step comes with the mere recognition of it. This is harder than it sounds, or perhaps easier. TV and the media are always easy components to recognize, the real challenge is to recognize how the spectacle, i.e., the prefabricated, artificial, consumerist milieu penetrates, influences and shapes even our most intimate thoughts--which we often mistake for our own desires, wants and needs. In T.A.Z. Bey offers suggestions on how we can extricate ourselves from this structure and start creating our own temporary autonomous zones, within this system of economic, social and cultural oppression. Immediatism, Poetic Terrorism, and the embrace of Chaos are just a few of the strategies that he advises, all of which presuppose a new dialectic with reality.

This is only an outline, a mere review, I leave discerning and interpreting the details to you...Get this book today (also available in spoken word from axiom records).

The idea of a "beautiful" and "poetic" treatise on anarchism may seem unbelievable, but then so is Hakim Bey's "TAZ." Bey proposes an anarchism of the mind, a realm as byzantine and fantastic as an opium fever-dream and every bit as "real" as any humdrum consensus reality we have ever been expected to deal with. An all-around wonder, "Temporary Automonous Zone" even includes recipies, helpful hints on parade themes and firework displays-- fun for kids and adults alike-- plus handy tips on how to build your own arabesque reality. If you read only one book on anarchism this year, "TAZ" is the one to buy.

Have a couple of dictionaries standing by, or be sure to have a few dozen bookmarked online while reading this, for if you're to appreciate Bey's prose, you're likely to need 'em. He writes in a strange way, obviously highly intelligent, but rambling, and if you're not quite sure what he's on about, it's just going to seem worse.

There are a lot of ideas in here, based on things I'm not very familiar with, such as Sufism and dadism - some of which are at least partially explained, but this is one of those books you need to read, and then come back to later and see how it compares. Certainly on the first go struggling somewhat to get a feel for how his mind works on paper.

It's a very inspiring work, which he may loathe to hear, but I intend to do something about it. I recommend reading it to anyone interested in expanding their interests and testing the limits of one's mind. Agreeing with everything he presents isn't necessary, but thinking about it is - doing even better. Highly recommended reading.

The Cold War was a war of nerves. Like all war, it was costly and wasteful. And like most war, determining the key event or strategy that led to its particular end point may be subject to endless debate. Peter Schweizer's point is that but for the strategy developed by the Reagan team and adopted by President Reagan in 1981 to 1983, the particular ending resulting in the collapse of the Soviet Union would not have occurred. The story he tells is compelling. History may well confirm his analysis.

This is not an academic work. It is more a multiple memoir. Most of Mr. Schweizer's citations are of interviews he conducted of major figures in the Reagan Administration. It also reads like a cookbook with one recipe. The ingredients-military buildup, economic embargos, support of regional conflicts in Communist lands, and most important, adoption of the strategic defense initiative-are set up in the first part of the book. These ingredients were more or less in place by the end of 1983. The book then becomes repetitious, sort of like telling the cook to stir the pot and then stir the pot some more. In the end, Gorbachev comes on the scene, recognizes that the pot has boiled over and takes it off the stove.

Other authors have been critical of the Reagan team's efforts. Schweizer points out that some of the criticisms were expressed by team members (especially Haig and Schultz) at the time the secret decisions were made. As time passes and peace allows for a more expansive view of the events in the 1980s, criticism will likely increase. A book such as this one will be all the more important then, as a reminder of what was done and how and why it was done.

At times, it is easy to question the wisdom of the American electorate. Yet at truly critical junctures, the voting public has shown an uncanny knack for electing leaders who were ideally suited for the challenges of the times. Certainly, that was the case in 1932, with the election of FDR, and again in 1980, with the rise to prominence of Ronald Reagan.

The origin of the demise of the Iron Curtain -- and ultimate break-up of the Soviet Union -- can be traced to Reagan's arrival on the world geopolitical stage in the early 1980s. Author Peter Schweizer provides copious evidence for how the Reagan Administration's policies contributed to the collapse of the USSR. Some of these policies included: covert support for Afghan rebels and the Polish underground; the unprecedented military build-up and technology commitment (including SDI); the efforts to stem technology transfers and subsidized financial credits to Eastern Bloc nations, and significantly, to hobble the development of the Siberian natural gas pipeline; the "special relationship" forged with the Saudis, which ultimately led to the precipitous decline in oil prices (costing the USSR billions in lost hard currency).

Reagan's policy of active confrontation with the Soviet Union was a stark departure from bi-partisan orthodoxy, which had attempted to "accommodate," or, at best, "contain" Soviet expansion.

Peter Schweizer's first contribution to the telling the untold stories of the efforts of the Reagan Administration is quite stunning - offering a uniques inside perspective to the operations and the planning of them that led to the memorable scenes of the Belrin Wall falling.

"Victory" is the story of what happened, and the planning that went on behind the scenes, orchestrated by then-DCI William Casey, who took lessons learned while fighting Adolf Hitler as part of the OSS in World War II, and applied them to fighting the Soviet Union.

Casey will probably go down in history as one of the America's great unsung heroes, joining men like Edwin T. Layton and Joe Rochefort. Schweizer's efforts have laid out this untold story, fought in the shadow world of espionage and covert operations in an engaging story.

Contempt of Court presents a history of a long-ago legal proceeding, an important one now nearly forgotten. Curriden and Phillips keep it engaging from start to finish. They've done a wonderful job of recreating the passions and pressures of a southern city in the Jim Crow era. Readers get more than an understanding of the law. They get to know the people who participated in a landmark case -- from Noah Parden, a black lawyer who battled overwhelming odds to take a poor man's case to the Supreme Court, to Sheriff Joseph Schipp, who let a lynch mob subvert the rule of law. The book offers many well-drawn scenes, such as the crime against Nevada Taylor, Parden's audience with Justice John Marshall Harlan and the lynching itself. All are sketched in great detail. And there's the jail-house prayer service the African-American community held for Ed Johnson, an innocent man, who facing death, found dignity and faith in God. Contempt of Court proves that American law isn't only about legal arguments. It's also abou living, breathing human beings, with their capacities for heroism and evil.

I have read a pre-published transcript of this book,and it is an exciting incite into a fasinating event in the history of our country.l suspect like most people,including professional historians,Ihad never heard of these events.I predict a movie will be made of this book.Two African American lawyers in 1906 in a small southern town struggle desperately and with great courge to save the life of a poor illerate Negro acused and convicted of raping a white woman.He is sentenced to death by a bigoted all white jury .At the risk of their lives,the lawyers seek relief in a federal court ,and when it is denied ,they have the intestinal fortitude to seek an appeal to the U S Supreme Court in Washington and 1906 this was a world away.To the astonishment of everyone old Justice John Marshall Harlan grants the appeal and orders a stay of his execution.This''interference'' by the highist court in the land infuriates the local white supremists,and with the acquiesence of the sheriff who is up for reelection,a mob breaks into the jail and succeeds in lynching the poor Black man.On his toomb stone is chiseled his last words to the vicious mob; ''God BLESS YOU ALL.I AM AN INNOCENT MAN.When the Supreme Court reads about the lynching in the Washington Post the next day, they are furious.The Justices persuade President T Roosevelt to send the secret service in Chattanooga Tenn.the small southern town involved.Eventually,and for the first and only time in the history of the U S Supreme Court,the Justices try the sheriff his deputies and members of the mob .I will let you read about what happens in the historical and unprecedented trial.It is worth reading by history experts and by anyone interested in excellent material This one is headed for rewards.

I ended up reading this book in a little over two days. I was quickly hooked by the fascinating and horrifying story of Ed Johnson, an indigent black man, unjustly accused and convicted by an all-white judicial system that was very typical of the south at the turn of the century. Mr. Johnson's second set of lawyers, two courageous black lawyers, from Chattanooga appeal to the US Supreme Court and set the stage for the most intriguing case to ever be heard before the court. Read the book!

I received this book as a gift and it will always be very special to me. I know it will be a book I will read more than once. The story line is interesting and fun. The characters are lovable and wonderful each in their own way. It would be hard for me to choose a favorite, because there is something in each character I connected with, even Haddoxes. And as for Clover Bay - well, I can only say I would love to live there. I can't wait for the next book from Dr. Haley.

Great book! How can I add anything to that? Best thing is that I can read it again and again but I need more. Yo! Mr. Haley, we need another book real soon. I have worn this one out reading it for the tenth time. Talking with a friend in LA and the rumor is that the big boys have been looking this over for either a movie or TV sitcom. Hope both are true! More rumors are that you have at least six more books coming out. When will they be here? Please hurry! Harry O

It was one of those books that once I started reading it was difficult to put down. I enjoyed the characters that Wayne created and how they functioned together. Enjoyable content, I recommend it for fun reading great entertainment.

President Kennedy did not have the easiest presidency imaginable: big issues abroad including Cuba, Vietnam, Berlin, the nuclear arms race and test ban treaties with Russia and the highly contradictory issue of integration at home were all begging for his attention and often at the same time. This biography gives a good insight into the way decisions were taken and that there is a lot of on-the-job learning involved. It is in a sense shocking to read that the way a superpower is run is not that much different from the way an average manager runs his group of a few people.

I found it slightly disappointing that this biography deals exclusively with the presidency of Kennedy, not his formative years as a student, a soldier and a senator. But all in all a revealing insight into the presidency of a man who, after his assassination, become a posthumous hero.

Richard Reeves' book is a welcome addition to the "Camelot Years" genre. Written from the President's perspective, i.e. "a day in the life" type format, this excellent read neither fawns, nor muckrakes, but rather gives a balanced account of a Presidency that, until this point, has not been examined in an objective light. Reeves' first person perspective shows a president who had more profile than courage. Inspite of his many gifts, JFK was diffident, at best, as President. Reeves book reveals a JFK that was driven, almost maniacally, to get to the White House, but once he got there was pretty much out of his league. The portrait of a neophyte statesman is obvious when Kennedy makes his first trip to Europe, receives a lukewarm reception from DeGaulle, and is taken to the woodshed by Nikita Khrushev who, upon seeing the youthful president exclaimed "he's younger than my own son." Reeves account beautifully illustrates how the rich playboy-president miscalculates Khrushev; one gets the impression that Kennedy felt that his Soviet counterpart could be rolled like a Boston pol. Kennedy came away from his first overseas trip as president much chastened. Richard Reeves' book is excellent; well written, well researched, and balanced. I highly recommend it. (I've read it twice!!)

Richard Reeves has crafted an exceedingly insightful, well-written, you-are-there look at the Presidency of John F. Kennedy. As someone born the year Kennedy was assasinated, and having been inculcated over the years with the Kennedy Myth, Reeves took me almost day-by-day, minute-by-minute through the events starting from Kennedy's election through the day 33 years ago when he was killed in Dallas.
Reeves' looks at the Berlin Wall and Cuban Missile Crises take advantage of recent disclosures from US, Soviet and other sources to show how close we came to World War III in both of those situations.
The book's description of the start of the US commitment in Vietnam under JFK allowed me to gain a better understanding of how Kennedy's prior failure to stand up to the Soviet Union and Krushchev in Laos and Cuba "forced" JFK to stand firmly behind the unsupportable South Vietnamese government.
Other topics addressed by the book include JFK's tepid support of civil rights and his rampant promiscuity.
I had to rate this book a 9 (I've yet to read a 10), but this book has to be one of the best out of the almost unlimited supply of JFK biographies

After reading Lost Rights, I couldn't wait to read this book. This book is an outstanding follow-up, with more insight into the evolution of government power. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in political science, philosophy, law, or really just interested on how the world works. If every American read this book, the Democrats and the Republicans would be relegated to third-party status practically overnight. The government is one thing if nothing else- coercive power over the individual. Upon that understanding we should make one thing clear: that the more power that is given back to the individual, the better we shall be able to live our own lives without a "nanny state" to watch behind our backs to make sure we don't do something "wrong", like ingest politically incorrect substances. It is in this spirit that I give this book my highest praise. It is worth every penny.

...Freedom In Chains is a hard hitting book that explains thedifference between democracy and liberty and how statist politiciansand intellectuals have perverted the definition on liberty. Instead of the right to be left alone and doing what one pleases so long as no one else's rights are interfered with, statists have twisted it into something else. Government declares that there is a crisis or unmet need that requires taxation or intrusive laws that decrease our freedom in the guise of taking care of us. If you are a libertarian, Bovard's Freedom In Chains will remind you why you are one, if you are not a libertarian, it will hard not to become one after reading this book. It will really make you think hard about the role of the state and its citizens.

If you still labor under the delusion that the United States Government is here for your benefit, read this book. Mr. Bovard puts paid to that myth. Americans are now subject to such an unrealistic array of laws and statutes that every one of us is ripe for picking by some bureucrat looking to "get his numbers up". America has truly gone from a government "for the people" to one "against the people". Our constitutional protections are not worth the paper they are written on. If you manage to go through life without running afoul of some government functionary, you are indeed a luck individual. Read this book

This book by David Morrell is a winner! It combines all of the best ingredients of a spy thriller, a mystery, a love story and a police procedural. Morrell successfully combines several disparate characters to create an interesting mix of people who all contribute valuable pieces to the story and all of these different personalities are a piece of the pie that makes this book so enjoyable.

Fans of Morrell's other well wrought and devised plots and characters will like the "good folks" they meet within the pages of this novel. The author's usual adeptness and pacing and creating tension are well honed in this novel as well. This is one of those thrillers that grabs the reader from the beginning and holds his/her attention right through the final denouement. Hardly a page goes by that the tension is raised to an almost fever pitch and then, in the interest of keeping the story flowing, is released somewhat. The good guys may get off the hook for the moment, but the respite is only temporary. The evil they face may retreat, but rest assured, it will return.

This is a really great book for the reader who is snow-bound or on the beach. A great rainy day, housebound read, DO NOT start it late at night unless you plan on taking the next day off. With "Extreme Denial," Morrell proves once again that he is a master of this genre (really a combination of several) and at the top of his form. New readers of Morrell will also find this book a great introduction to this author and after reading this story, I am sure you'll want to hunt down and read all of the installments in his extensive backlist ...P> I recommend this book to all fans of thrillers and mysteries. Give it a look; you won't regret it.

Paul Connors

I remember reading this book a while back and really getting carried away with all the non-stop action. The story was totally compelling. I loved it. David Morrell is one of the best authors out there when it comes to non-stop action. Especially with all his older books. The ones of today are lacking. Try this book, especially if you're in to action and a little romance. You won't be disappointed.

Well written, fast paced, and a GREAT plot. If they make a movie out of it, look out...it'll be a classic