Opening

I somehow missed the first volume in this series but I will have to look it up. The idea was to ask a number of current mystery and crime writers to submit their first published story. The results are surprisingly good though a few of the older ones show their age. Block cheats a little because some of the writers had been doing novels and non-genre stuff for years before the submitted pieces. I was especially interested in seeing that Ed Hoch's first story was about one his series characters, the allegedly immortal Simon Ark. Overall a collection that should appeal to any mystery reader.

This book is a great handbook for clinicians who are working with male survivors of sexual abuse. It is a rare find, which addresses issues specifically for a male survivor population. The approach is an trans-theoretical one, which focuses on techniques to implement at the different stages of therapy. It is easy to read and to follow. There are even parts of the book which I have shared with my patients for psychoeducational purposes. A must for people working in this field!

You would never believe that this author got her start writing software manuals! This book is quirky, insightful, and often haunting. It explores the world of dreams.

Janice organizes the subject of dreams chapter-by-chapter based on type: healing dreams, teaching dreams, totem animal dreams, spirit guide dreams, past-life dreams, rites of passage dreams, and even alien-encounter dreams! Anyone with an imagination is going to find something fascinating to look up.

But it's more fun and rewarding to read the book straight through. Each chapter is headed by a striking black-and-white photograph: an unusal image, an artistic arrangement of objects. Several dreams follow: dated, reproduced in a fancy script font, and accompanied by comments in regular type.

The comments are not endless navel-gazing. They are succinct and revealing. Janice touches on topics ranging from Akashic records to married life to brain waves (alpha, beta, theta, delta) to dabbling in art classes to symbolism to getting certified as a reader of the Voyager Tarot deck and so forth -- all filtered through the lens of personal experience.

In fact it is her wealth of personal anecdotes that I enjoyed most. She has a great sense of humor. When discussing channeling, she mentions that she thinks of her spirit guide as Fred: "... Fred has always been my name for the great unknowable and unknown ..." (p.99)

Her dreams themselves are haunting and surrealistic. They alone are worth the price of the book. Those who are experienced dream recorders will find that her insights deepen their practice. Beginners will find her book invaluable: she includes a checklist with every chapter of things to try or simply of which to be aware. These checklists provide a simple and practical way to get started. Put this book together with Katherine Metcalf Nelson's NIGHT FISHING for a perfect course in dream work.

Imagine my happiness in learning that Janice Winsor plans a sequel! She's terrific; get this book!

In many ways this is a helpful set of (2) tapes. There is an introduction, and three meditations following. The first meditation walks your awareness through the entire body, so that you can learn to be more aware of yourself as a physical being.The second tape is a similar meditation focusing on the pelvic region. Third,there is a loving-kindness meditation, to help you connect with all beings in need of healing, and to share your healing energy with them. I liked how Levine included this part, because it makes us aware we are not isolated in our suffering. The only problem with the tapes is that they are narrated by him, and he is a man with a man's voice. This is especially disconcerting when doing the second meditation. He mentions this issue in the introduction, and says that you can make your own tape in your own voice or a friend's. The tapes come with a transcript so you can indeed easily make your own tapes in a safe voice. However, I think it might have been better if in the first place he had had his wife and working partner Ondrea read the text on the tapes. Still, his heart is in the right place and I did find the tapes helpful.

Includes many tools for healing, including self-inventory based on the Tree of Life, myth and story-telling, sound and meditation.

Mark Malachi's "From The Depths of Silence: The Application of Sound in Kabbalistic Healing," includes ideas which are useful to anyone, such as his discussion of the need to balance the releasing aspects and strengthening aspects of healing.

If you find working with releasing past trauma healing, exercise caution in approaching chapter 4; it is an alternative perspective which doesn't value this work.

I thought this book was very good and very interesting.

I admit to having been highly sceptical of this discipline. The word psychic to me had conjured up images of "Madame Marie" or some other soothsayer or con artist. While the profession is, admittedly rife with such creatures, Joan Pancoe is an entirely different case. A powerful, highly formidable spirit, she is an outstanding therapist who's been in private practice in New York for over 25 years. She is, in short, the real deal.

The book is fairly advanced material. I found that I had to go back and read some elementary Taoist and Chi Gung texts to get some foundation in the concepts discussed. It would help if the reader did that in advance. The book is channeled and the examples are taken from her cases. I highly recommend this.

This book is great for those players trying to decide what type of opening systems are best for them.

The Penguin Book provides an overview of all the common opening variations. And by reading over this book, a player will gain a valuable familiarity with almost all of the openings that he is likely to encounter over the board. This book does not dive deep into any specific opening, but rather gives the reader a basic understanding of all of them.

I read this book when I was rated about 1400. It was my first opening book and I feel that it gave me a great foundation to build on.
After reading this book, I realized what openings suited my style best. And I later purchased books specifically focused on the openings I had chosen.
But it all began with this book.

I am now rated approxamately 1900 and own hundreds of chess books. But I will always appreciate this one for getting me started in the right direction.

This is an overall good book. It covers most of the variations of the King's Gambit, both Accepted and Declined. However, since it is a 1982 book, some theory are not as accurate or as extensively studied as should be.

This is one of the better chess publications I've come across in recent years. Mednis offers plenty of detailed analysis on a range of specific openings, but his main focus is on much broader issues, such as centralization, repertoire building, and the value of novelty. His analysis is heavy on explication and light on exhaustive variations, making this an excellent book to enjoy away from the board. Section titles include "The not-so-harmless Exchange Variation of the French Defense"; "Minor piece or three pawns: which is better?"; and "Sister openings." I think these speak for themselves.