Partner

I took a look at this book to see if it might be something Icould recommend to my son's father, now that we're separated. Whilethere is some good parenting information, there are also some serious problems. Brott clearly isn't completely over his divorce yet. Little digs against mothers crop up even when he is discussing unrelated topics (for example, when he is discussing becoming a stepfather, he feels compelled to claim that mothers are more likely to abuse children than are stepfathers (he gives no reference to back up this bizarre claim). He condemns giving the mother sole or primary custody for various reasons, but supports *fathers* getting sole or primary custody--in his discussions of custody, he fails to focus on the children's best interests, but instead emphasizes the father's rights. Ditto his discussion of child support--he seems to think that mothers use child support payments to indulge themselves, without considering that adequate child support is what is the children's best interest. Furthermore, his proposed visitation schedules for breastfeeding infants are ludicrous--for example, for a one month old, breastfed, he suggests at least 3 hours a day, plus 8 to 12 hours on the weekends--a schedule that is highly likely to prevent breastfeeding from being successfully established. He also claims that extended breastfeeding (past 1 year) is merely a ploy to interfere with the father's relationship with the child. He also suggests giving "tastes" of food to very young babies (newborn to 6 months), apparently unaware that early introduction of solids can increase the risk of allergies developing. One good thing about this book is that he has included lots of information for gay fathers throughout, but I suspect that there are other books for gay fathers which do not have the problems of this book. I decided not to recommend this book to my son's fathers. Instead, I gave him a copy of _Helping_Your_Kids_Cope_With_Divorce_the_Sandcastles_Way_, which includes a wealth of balanced, compassionate, realistic advice for divorced parents of both genders.

I'm adopting a 9 year old boy, and even I'm not in any of the categories this book describes, every page of it had become very useful. I live the same ups and downs, the same joy and the same frustration, so, I'm practicing every advice the author wrote, with extraordinary results.
For the first time since I took the decision of becoming a single father, I found an empathic word and a shoulder to cry in this book.

As a single father (never married to my child's mother), I've looked at as many books as I could find to get assistance in being a good father under the circumstances. I've only bought two - Live-Away Dads by William Klatte, and this one.

Mr Brott's book is informative, interesting, easy to read and easy to understand. Contrary to so many books on this subject, I didn't get any sense of anti-anything or anti-anyone posturing. Instead, I got the sense that Mr Brott values children and believes that they need fathers in their lives. His book is designed to encourage fathers to accept and embrace their relationships with their kids, despite limitations or changes in their circumstances. The thrust of the book is that the father-child relationship is important and necessary, and he suggests that fathers pursue and protect those relationships. To that end, he offers suggestions and advice about how to do so (from the big subjects, like meeting someone new, to the small, like setting aside space in your place for your kids, even if they don't live with you). I found it extremely helpful, if for no other reason than I felt less alone.

He seemed to me to be saying that preserving your relationship with your kids doesn't have to be to the exclusion of anyone else, and doesn't have to be a destructive process, which it all too frequently is. Would that more people agreed.

Scott, the attorney focused on becoming a partner in his law firm, is the downstairs neighbor to Lydia, a research scientist focused on completing her doctorate. Neither has time for a romance, and both have pesky interfering sisters determined to set them up with blind dates. They conspire to be convenient partners to family events to get their sisters off their backs. Events push the partnership past convenience, into real friendship and true love. But because neither wants to hold the other back from their goals, and neither wants to break their original agreement to stay uninvolved, their relationship hits a brick wall. Once their goals are achieved, they realize that dreams are more important than goals, and it is one of the sisters that changes her tack and steers them to the solution that finally brings them together.

The most commendable element of this story was the friendship between the hero and the heroine. What begins as a mild sort of meeting of minds broadens into a good friendship between Scott and Lydia.

Two career-driven people, Scott and Lydia are always under attack by their respectively good-intentioned sisters who want nothing more than to see them happily settled down. As well-intentioned as the two were, they really began to irritate a bit as meddlesome siblings do. In that respect, they were effective, yet a hindrance to the story.

The main attraction is the expansion of Scott and Lydia's friendship which only grows stronger with their developing relationship. I really liked the idea of a heroine who was determined to see her dreams through rather than push them aside. But most importantly, I enjoyed how Wilkins characterized Scott as a man who was equally career-driven yet willing to compromise because he saw something incredibly special in the strength of Lydia's mind and character.

I have always enjoyed Wilkin's works. This book is no exception. Wilkins has the talent to combine a relationship with romance and career. I liked Lydia's passion to pursue a career and Scott's willingness to support her. My favorite Wilkins' book is "After Hours" followed closely by "Doctors In Disguise."

Ok, this may seem incredibly biased because I wrote one of the stories in this book, but the option for the author to separately write something about his own work is not available anymore (or not on this listing anyway). The 4 stars in this review is entirely based on Lee's story and not my own, though. I was a huge Lee fan before I ever got the opportunity to do this chapbook with him, and I thought his story here was a riot. Like his other hardcore work, there are unfathomable depravities backed up by a very strong sense of characterization which generally goes ignored by his critics. He's one of the most entertaining writers out there, able to pull off the sickening delights of works like THE PIG or THE BIGHEAD alongside extremely layered stories like "The Ushers." Anyone who enjoys Lee's work will not be disappointed by his outing in PARTNERS IN CHYME...I wanted to say in defense of my own story that it was written for the Gross Out competition for the World Horror Convention in 1999. The brevity of the story -- a valid criticism -- was a result of trying to present a whole story in under five minutes. I disagree that it is "far from being memorable," however. I base this on the grounds that I read this story to an audience in 1999 and although the chapbook was proposed less than a week later, it was not published until December of 2001; despite this, I still had people quoting lines from the story to me a couple years later, so I think it has a way of staying with you. There's a very good chance you'll think of my story next time you go to Subway.

I've also heard of a few people who refused to finish reading the chapbook after my story because it was too sick, so it's at least made an impression.

This is definitely a hardcore horror collection, written with fiends for disgusting fiction in mind. It was written for the fun of the art of repulsion (hence the title) with no attempt to frighten anyone (though we might have done that involuntarily; we probably don't seem like the kind of guys you're dying to go to the opera with, to paraphrase Lee's story).

"Both authors are capable of better." This I agree with. You'll still have fun with PARTNERS IN CHYME, though, if you believe the gore, the merrier...

Ryan Harding (nonesovile@hotmail.com)

If you're looking for that perfect book to make yourself completely sick, this is it!

Partners in Chyme (pronounced KIME) is a 34-page chapbook, containing two stories by these masters of gross. When I first heard about it, I thought, "Two stories? Why only two?" Then I read it and understood. Anything else would have been overkill. Ed Lee and Ryan Harding achieve in these two stories a complete gross-out, enough to make you reconsider eating anything the rest of the day.

We start off with Ed Lee's "The Dritiphilist", a story about fetishes. You're wondering what a dritiphilist is, and what the fetish entails, aren't you? So was I at first. Now I'm kind of wishing I still didn't know. And I'm not going to tell you in this review. You wanna find out, order the book.

The last time I read anything that grossed me out, I was reading Ed Lee's "Portrait of the Psychopath as a Young Woman," and here he is doing it again.

See, this is why I don't even bother trying to write this hardcore gross-out stuff anymore, because I know nothing I can come up with is going to equal Ed Lee's mind. He's a sick, sick man. He's also, from what I've been able to glean online, a very nice, intelligent, approachable guy. But he's still a sick, sick man.

And Ryan Harding's "Damaged Goods" is no better.

Great stuff if you like it gross.

What a pair of naughty boys Edward and Ryan have been. I like it. I ordered this chapbook on the strength of reading some of Lee's other works and not realizing that Harding was a co-author (co-contributor?) (and not the illustrator). My gain. While I'm already on the prowl for more works by Ed, I've now added Ryan to the hit list. I can't seem to get enough of a good thing.

Victor Schrager's images are gorgeous - every single one is a masterpiece - lovely, endlessly fascinating, wonderfully rich and complex and brilliantly intelligent in conception and execution.
The superb photography is accompanied by the delightful text of A.S. Byatt. For anyone who loves photography, birds, nature, art or literature, this is the perfect book. It will charm and delight you forever.

This book is stunning in every sense. A beautiful collection of bird photographs, interesting & insightful essay, with classic yet modern design marrying the two. This book clearly illustrates the delicate interaction between man and nature. I think this book should appeal to many different individuals-- fans of Schrager's work, fans of Byatt's work, those interested in photography, as well as the birding population in general. I loved it!

These pictures are a fresh look at the interplay between Nature and Culture - the photographs are beautiful, the text rich and entertaining, and the fusion between the two is great. One of the nicest photography books in a long time.

As the leader of the Project Management Office and the initiator of project management standards for a large metropolitan school district, I needed a reference to give my new project managers an introduction to the things I was asking them to do. I found this book to be an excellent reference for that purpose. Also using the associated training program, I have offered very effective training classes for many people throughout our school district.

In adapting project management standards for our district, I also drew upon many of the princples outlined so effectively in this book. It makes project management easy to understand for people who have little or no exposure to the concepts.

I also found that I, as a veteran of many years of project management, found many excellent refreshers and reminders for the best practices of how we should pursue project management.

I would recommend this book to new and experienced project managers, alike.

As the leader of the Project Management Office and the initiator of project management standards for a large metropolitan school district, I needed a reference to give my new project managers an introduction to the things I was asking them to do. I found this book to be an excellent reference for that purpose. Also using the associated training program, I have offered very effective training classes for many people throughout our school district.

In adapting project management standards for our district, I also drew upon many of the princples outlined so effectively in this book. It makes project management easy to understand for people who have little or no exposure to the concepts.

I also found that I, as a veteran of many years of project management, found many excellent refreshers and reminders for the best practices of how we should pursue project management.

I would recommend this book to new and experienced project managers, alike.

I have used this book for 2 purposes. Along with the facilitator's guide, I've conducted introductory project management work sessions to introduce people to project management concepts, terminology and processes. Session evaluations from attendees have been overwhelmingly positive. We have also used many of the tools on the disk, some in exact format, some with revisions, to build tools for use in developing our project planning documentation.

Also use the tools, worksheets and checklists for both work projects and personal projects at home. The book and the tools are very helpful to ensure projects get off in the right direction. The terms, concepts and exercises have been extremely well received by participants. Have so far had 75 particpants in six 2 to 3 day sessions.

The book provides great insight into Stalin's almost paranoid fear of a Sino-American rapprochment, even before the end of WWII. In fact, the book dedicates the entire first section to detailing this concern of Stalin's. And, it is well-researched. The problem is that when assessing Stalin's interests in getting China to enter the Korean war, the authors list vague and anecdotal reasons as to why Stalin might want a direct Sino-American conflict on the battlefield. They even acknowledge that this was the result, but oddly never consider that this was Stalin's intention all along. Otherwise, a useful work to understand how the war fit into the larger strategic calculations of all three players.

Interesting book. Focuses on the evolving relationship of Mao & Stalin. Both men had immense egos. Fascinating to understand that at one time even Mao had to rule thru consensus. Stalin by 49 rules thru fear, having already had shot anyone whose consensus didn't jive with his. But the title is misleading. The decision for war in Korea is only a factor in the last couple of chapters. These chapters are fascinating, to the point one wishes the book contained more info on the Korean war and less on the political relationship that developed from 45-49 between these two evil men.

In an overall sense, this is an outstanding book. Uncertain Partners deals with many of the issues surrounding the nations of China, Russia, and Korea immediately following WWII. The authors, a Russian presidential advisor and two Stanford political scientists, reveal and report about many of the confidential documents of Stalin, Mao Zedong and Kim Il Sung. These documents, never before seen previous to the 1990s, describe the inner-workings and deep-seeded relationship between Stalin and Mao. In many ways, Stalin and Mao were uncertain partners. The authors makes the reader understand that Mao was simply a puppet of Stalin and his form dictatorial communism. For a greater understanding of this partnership, I would undoubtably recommend this book. Concerning the topic of Russian and Chinese relations, this book has to have profound implications. With that in mind, it's a must read.

After visiting THE Getty Center, I've become a huge fan of Meiers' work. Although most of his work in the past seems untouchable to me, this project has a clean but warm inviting feeling around every corner. The photographs in the book are superb and layout the book with remarkable light, clarity and stunning imagery. The photographer John Linden is a true master of the camera. His work carries the book. Not a bad read either, but who reads books on architecture? This book and the project itself pure eye candy. Buy it.

Despite the succinctness of the book, I knew all I needed to know about the Getty Centre which costed a whopping US$1 billion to build. Getty Centre is to the other extreme of the Bilbao Museum by Gehry. The latter one is both an architecture building & a sculpture as a whole but the former offering is a Modern building in the best traditions of Le Corbusier, Philip Johnson, or even Miles van de Rohe. I'm disappointed to read that Richard Meier didn't get the chance to realise his total vision upon the project & therefore, the integrity of his design is ultimately compromised. 2 of the incidents worth mentioning are the engagement of the interior designer, Thierry Despont to provide the colour coordination of the galleries. He's better known as the designers for the rich & famous such as Ralph Lauren & Bill Gates. In this instance, Theirry applied heavy & bold colours to complement the art works & when the art works melted into the scene, the emphasis upon the art works themselves are lost in totality. Secondly, the engagement of the landscape artist, Robert Irwin who introduced the circular garden which broke the link between 2 main buildings of the Getty Centre. It's interesting to read about the material chosen, the travertine, & how it blends nicely with the white metal panels that Richard Meier is well known for; the maximisation of controlled light to highlight the artworks & yet, not harming them in anyway required fine detailing & ingenuity in which Richard Meier & team delivered. The book comprises of many photographs taken from many angles imaginable under different time of the day. Many elevation plans, sectional plans, conceptual plans, model plans, detailing plans, & all you need to know about the Getty Centre. Definitely worth reading for an architecture enthusiast.

A question everyone must ask when they first visit the Getty Museum is, "How did anyone ever build this enormous, complicated, graceful complex of buildings?" In The Getty Center by Michael Brawne, the author takes you to the earliest stages of the project with breathtaking photography and detailed text. The photography from beginning to end allows you to feel that you can take part of the" Getty Experience" home with you. I bought this book for my daughter when I was at the Museum gift shop and got home feeling sorry I didn't have my own copy, so this is my second purchase of this beautiful book

I really liked the 6th edition of this text, which I used for both semesters of General Biology. The illustrations were clear and I think Mader had a clear grasp of the concepts of biology. However, as a molecular biology major and as a person who has seen no evidence that macroevolution has occurred, I object to her characterization of creationism as unscientific. Mader is bold enough to actually state in Chapter 1 (in a connecting concepts box)"When faith is involved, a hypothesis cannont be tested in a purely objective way." She neglects to consider the exorbinant amount of faith it takes to believe in macroevolution. This is a theory which in all actuality is untestable. Furthermore, her statement which was quoted above would be considered by many to be "bad science"! She makes no reference to any studies which support her hypothesis. And I don't believe I've ever heard of any. In the fields of genetics and molecular biology, as we come to understand the complexity of living organisms, the theory of evolution just becomes more and more untenable. It's fine if Dr. Mader believes in evolution. That's her choice. But to go out of her way to rip the growing number of scientists who disagree with her was gratuitous and mean-spirited. This caused me to question HER objectivity throughout the rest of the book.

I used this text for a course that I took from Cal Berkeley Extension - online. That is an internet course. I am considering a career change from physical sciences to biotech and need to come up to speed rapidly.

The course covered only the first 2 units (first 17 chapters) so I will only speak to that. This text, with CD ROM (2) and internet learning center is GREAT! Looking at the entire package this is a great way to learn biology. The material covered in those first 17 chapters are exactly what one needs to know - elementary biochem; cell structure; genetics; gene expression; biotech. The illustrations are great and consistent (eg., phosphate groups are always orange-yellow) throughout the text. Actually, I would say that it is about the best illustrated text I have ever seen in my life. The on-line quizes (about 64 questions/chapter) let you know if you have really mastered the material or not. Independent questions at the end of every chapter all have answers in the appendix - so again you can check your understanding. The web site has shockwave art match the parts of the cell to the labels all as part of a package to independently learn biology.

I would say it would be helpful to have a year of college chemistry before plunging into this course - but the chemistry is not too sophisticated. The focus is on essentials - but with understanding. For people considering a switch into biology and want to study independently, I reccomend this book highly. I do not easily give 5 stars - but this book earns it.

Save your money. Not only does this book not offer any possible solutions, it doesn't even provide a comprehensive analysis of the problem. It is heavily documented with endnotes (which is good) but the multitude of studies, op-ed pieces and surveys are never really brought into the text and explained. Instead, the book reads as if Ms. Minow summarized each source into a single sentence and then haphazardly strung the sentences together.
The reader is bombarded with constant repetition. Given the subject matter, repetition might not be a bad thing, but here it seems to result more from disorganization than an attempt to clarify important points. Indeed, the reader is left with the impression that the constant citations are meant to make up for the fact that the book reads as if it were dashed off in a series of odd moments stolen from more important duties.
Ms. Minow may be granted some latitude because she is a lawyer and brevity adorned with citation is bread and butter to the bar, but she is not writing for lawyers here and I would suspect that even lawyers would find her polemics redundant and unenlightening. I was eager to read this book, hoping to gain greater insight into the issue of privatization. I was sorely disappointed.

I enjoyed reading this book because it is both accessible and sophisticated. In a discourse too often characterized by polemics and sound-bites, Minow offers a thoughtful view of the trend toward privatization. Reading her book helped me see how complex these issues are, and gave me new insight into arguments I might otherwise have dismissed. I found it a rare treat.

Martha Minow's book is a tremendously valuable, engaging guide to thinking about the respective roles of the public and private sector in promoting our common good. With great insight and fair-mindedness, Minow identifies the promises and problems of the shifting roles of the public and private sector in many areas of our lives; schooling, welfare, legal services and health services. I think how we allocate public and private responsibility will have a huge impact on the future of our democracy. There are, as Minow points out, advantages in creating more private responsibility in education, for example. But these pros need to be weighed very carefully against the disturbing prospect of abandoning our commitment to public, integrated schools. As she has in her other books, Minow brings great wisdom to this vital topic.

I am a compulsive book buyer. When I stop buying books I replace the books with some other obsession. I have bought most of the books that amazon offers on compulsive buying(trying to help myself through my compulsiveness).I have learned something in each one that I have read. This book "Overcoming Overspending" is the worst book on compulsive spending that I have read so far. I actually skipped the entire middle of the book(I did read the chapter headings and skimmed through). In the beginning of the book I had hope that the book was going to be real good but it started talking about doing these ridiculous exercises. I felt that these were things that were a total waste of time and absolutely were not helpful at all. I would like to know if anyone out there that has read this book actually followed the program. I have just started another book called "Consuming Passions" and already in the first few pages of the book I have learned more than I learned in the whole "Overcoming Overspending" book. I hope this helps someone, because now I have a book that I feel was a total waste of my time reading it and the money I spent on it. ...

The reader who said the exercises in "Overcoming Overspending" are ridiculous does not want to examine his/her feelings about money. I have worked on many of the exercises and have found them enormously helpful with my own compulsive spending issues. Overspending is such a widespread problem now that a number of useful books have been written on the subject. Olivia Mellan's book shows gives readers the benefit of her years as a professional money counselor. Readers will find it well worth their time and thoughtful contemplation.

I can't say enough good things about this book. It has helped my husband and me enormously. But for the book to work, I think you have to truly want to change your spending habits as individuals and as a couple and commit to the exercises. Skimming it (as the reviewer below did, to his or her disappointment) and hoping for magic is not going to bring about change. Let me just give a couple of examples from our experience with the book .... For my wonderful husband (a classic overspender) and me (a chronic underspender aka penny pincher), money was the one thing we argued about. I dreaded Christmas because my husband would buy loads of expensive presents, certainly many more than I wanted--and we'd spend the months after paying off debts. He tended to make impulsive purchases and frequently ate out. Over time, with the help of this wise book, we learned to make changes and capitalize on our strengths as a couple. I took over financial matters, we set up a budget, we commited to savings, we considered purchases carefully and went into stores at Christmas with a list to avoid impulsive purchases. Most importantly we learned how our childhoods, especially the models of our own parents, contributed to our present money woes. Getting a handle on our money issues, helped us move forward in other areas of our lives: having a child and considering adopting another, buying a new car, investing, saving for a house. So the book does work--if you're willing to invest the effort to change!