Overall a good book on regeneration, with a few issues.
585110
I love to read and think deeply about different aspects of Christian theology. In this area, Piper is one author who continues to be of help to me, even when I disagree with him. "Finally Alive" is no exception.

Piper breaks the discussion of the new birth into five parts: 1) What Is the New Birth, 2) Why Must We Be Born Again?, 3) How Does theNew Birth Come About?, 4) What Are the Effects of the New Birth?, and 5) How Can We Help Others Be Born Again?

In each of these parts, Piper goes into his normal deep exegesis of Scripture.  To me, parts four and five were the best, as we learn about how the new birth affects us and how we are used by God to help others come to the new birth.

I did struggle, however, with some of the earlier parts, as Piper defends a Reformed/Calvinistic stance on regeneration. I am still reading on this issue, and I have a lot of respect for Reformed ministers and believers, but at this point in my walk, I am still not convinced by a completely Reformed understanding of salvation.

Even so, I always learn something, even from those I disagree with.  If you want a good explanation of regeneration, this would be a good book to add to your reading list.
3835596
Overall, it's a pretty good book. My only complaint is a fairly major one: his assertion in the beginning that Anglicanism rejected apostolic succession is false. Not only is it false, the Anglican Communion's adherence to apostolic succession is well know. This may sound like I'm nitpicking, but if he can't get this one well known fact correct, I'm forced to question the rest of his conclusions.

EDIT: I was too harsh in my original review and rating of three stars. There is a valid case to be made for and against apostolic succession in the Anglican Communion, and more research is needed on my part. I've decided to change my rating to five stars because, while I may not necessarily agree with the author on that one point, each of his other arguments are sound and should be judged on their own merits.
3721163
Most of this book is a refutation of baptismal regeneration, and deals with issues within The Anglican Church. If you're looking for something that spells out regeneration, look elsewhere, in my opinion. It's well done, it's just not really about explaining actual regeneration.
1225800
I thought this did quite a good job covering not just the distribution side, but some aspects of transmission and generation, with good supporting graphics. It includes some nice sections on SCADA/smart grid operations and future technologies as well. Overall one of the best electrical references I've ever had. However, I find a lot of the terms that are discussed in the book and rather important in general are missing from the index or glossary - which causes a lot of time to be spent searching where it is that they are covered. Also, having vocabulary lists at the beginning of some of the chapters (and some major sections) is nice, but the lists don't seem to be in any order - which can sometimes cause an annoyance when you're trying to recall a specific term mid-chapter.
4057361
This book is well worth a read and I agree with the general ideas and thoughts. And if you're at all new to the subject or interested in Zen related looks at consciousness and the conceptual world it is definitely a good choice.

I would give it 5 stars for subject matter because it takes an unusual and much needed view of life/consciousness. And in general Hagen gets his points across pretty well. But the annoyance factor, and the "what could have been factor" (I have so many questions that should have been addressed) cause me to drop my rating to 3 stars.

Here are some of the problems I have with the book. It is repetitive, it pounds home the relatively easy concepts. It is occasionally obscure and glosses over difficult ideas that need some pounding. It uses sloppy logic at times.

An example of sloppy logic. Hagen is speaking of the NOW. He uses a time-line thought experiment of a tadpole growing into a frog. A picture is taken once per second over the period (say two weeks, I forget exactly). Hagen says if you look at the photos one at a time you never see the NOW moment when the tadpole suddenly is a frog. At first thought that makes sense. But a little deeper thought tells you that even without a timeline we "know," that tadpoles evolve into frogs; Which means that tadpoles gain frogness moment by moment and when we decide enough frogness already we call it a frog. No great mystery. So if we were to look at the photos we would keep zeroing in until we find the one where just enough frogness is evident to pronounce him FROG. We may not be aware that we decide things that way, but we do (what other way is there?). We could have many more terms for forms of tadpole/frog in the language and then we could zero in on other points of the timeline to find the photo that defines those terms.

I find this sort of thing frustrating and really annoying. Why? Because his points on an important subject, the NOW, were really good and interesting. But he missed the most salient point, or didn't explain it well enough or in a timely manner, namely that the NOW is infinitely short (one of the many infinities in life that go in all directions IMO). And instead went off on a tangent using this ill conceived, logically sloppy thought experiment which obviously explains nothing.

There are other moments like those, but on the other hand it's the only book of its kind I've found so...
2448347
Not a bad review on HRT options. Really quite technical and full of details that anyone but a health care provider will have difuculty fully grasping, but for those laypeople motivated to read it, it will still be quite usefull. As a health care provider myself, I wish the book was less wordy and had more bullet point summary charts with just the facts listed about various treatment options. Still, good information overall, and once I get motivated enough to type up my own summary sheets, I will likely use the info quite a bit in practice.
1053786
Overall, fairly good non-technical explanations of how various household technology works and basic instructions on simple repairs and maintenance.  Those unfamiliar with home repair may prefer more detailed instructions.  Note that several subjects appear at the end of the book in the section on sustainability, rather than under the more general topics of heating, lighting, etc.

While the book is good for what it covers, there are some notable lapses.  For example, steam heating systems are not addressed.  Also, the discussion of home framing jumps from balloon frame, "banned in the early 1900s", to platform frame, "developed in the late 1940s".  Very frustrating for a reviewer with a home built in 1938.
2361937
This book provides a pretty good introduction for those who are interested in learning about "supernatural vanishings". It includes interesting case histories of unexplianed dissappearances and teleportation, and even a few related to time dislocation. However, my main criticism with the book is that is deals mostly with very old cases. The first couple of chapters deal mainly with ancient cases- which could be attributed to legends and myths. The later parts of the book deal mainly with cases from the 14th to early 20th century. if you are sceptical before buying the book, this book will probably not be sufficient to change your mind; but if you read with an open mind, this is a pretty enjoyable read.
401050
I bought this book in Dec. 2010, just after it appeared in O'Reilly's web page and read it all from cover to cover in a few days. I liked it a lot, particularly for its breadth and its insight into first-hand approaches as finding power-laws and graphical analysis, which I believe are extremely important aspects in operative day-to-day data analysis. On the other hand I believe the book could have been much better had the author avoided some unfortunate pitfalls. Errors in some formulas, as other reviewers pointed out, are unforgettable and show a bit of trepidation on the part of the author and the editor. Other are comparatively minor but still make the book fall a little short of my expectations, for example (but this is my personal opinion) I hoped that the section on principal component analysis would have more mathematical detail. The choice of software is understandably limited, but I found the omission of PDL, the Perl Data Language, a bit unfortunate given its enormous capabilities for data processing. Overall, a good and relatively inexpensive book that is worth the data analyst bookshelf.
4934131
Tim does a great job of capturing what can be a long and challenging process. He presents ideas and suggestions for restoration techniques and products, and he is not afraid to point out things he could have done better or differently in his own project. A reasonably easy and enjoyable read with a hefty amount of information, including a summary of Airstream specifications for most model years.

The only frustration is repeatedly having to re-read sentences due to the plethora of grammatical, spelling and punctuation mistakes. There are so many it makes one wonder how the editor could even call himself an editor. It is clear a spelling checker was used and that's it. I hope the editing didn't cost much because the return is near zero for a near zero effort.
96529
I found this an interesting and well-written book about a subject that was new to me, namely the implications for the future which result from fact that population control has led to gender imbalance in many countries. There are two shortcomings, however. First is the fact that the author clearly has a very large axe to grind: right from the start we hear about how awful it is to have an excess of males over females, and I don't think the author has proved this. We're told a lot about the dire effects of too much testosterone, and get lots of examples of men behaving badly, and the book implies that gender-selection of sons is going to lead to disaster. But the comparison with the lawless Wild West, where males outnumbered females many times over doesn't seem relevant to the modest imbalances in modern societies where gender has been selected, and the counterexample of today's Alaska is simply pooh-poohed. It's certainly true that men have trouble finding wives in many Asian countries, but are their difficulties more serious than the problems that would have arisen without population control? The second problem is that the book takes an anecdotal approach. We're treated to a lengthy cliff-hanger story about rescuing trafficked women (OK, I admit this was exciting), and we hear about cats scampering through hospital halls with female fetuses in their mouths (well, only one cat), but the book would have been more convincing with a thorough statistical treatment of exactly what the situation is in various countries.
3781518
I did enjoy reading this book, with some minor things I hope become updated in future publishings.
It was written in the 70's, so while births were often described in a very personal, loving and spiritual manner, terminology such as "psychedelic," "trippy," "far out," and getting naturally "high" were often used and someone looking for straightforward talk may find it a little weird.
The only other thing I might update is the common use of layman's terms when describing anatomy - I prefer reading the formal medical terms and find some lay terms a bit on the vulgar side.
Overall I found the book to be a good read.  It was packed with every possible kind of birth, including a couple of stories about unfortunate deaths (while it's not a nice subject, there is always a possibility, and the people who experienced it share their feelings about it and about their outlook towards getting pregnant again).  Each story is unique, as told by the birth parent or the midwife(s) who attended, and it allows people a chance to see how different it can be for everyone, but also how wonderful it can be at the same time.
I recommend this book more for the individual stories than for the sections about how midwives can help deliver babies.  I would recommend more a book called "Birthing From Within" by Pam England which discusses natural childbirth, how to find a doctor or birth attendant who's philosophies more closely match yours, how to decide what kind of birth is right for you, and how to avoid being talked into something you don't want.
4386570
This book has some good advice and covers a wide range of topics. For example, the advice on your relationships and social life after a baby is all very practical and helps to keep everything in perspective. There is an annex with a monthly guide on the changes to expect in your baby, which is excellent. However, the chapter on sleeping is brutal (a point acknowledged by the author) and is not for everyone. Crying it out might work for some babies, but it simply won't be for everyone. And this is the book's major weakness that it focuses far too much on the author's own experiences and preferences, rather than providing options. Nevertheless, the book is a good read and a valuable reference on some points, but do not make it your only resource.
946825
Cure Your Child With Food is a book about nutrition and the impact nutrition has on children's health and growth. It's an interesting book in that it's organized with each chapter meant to be read independently, which leads to a lot of repetition.

For instance, my impression of the first half of the book is that she's a one-trick pony. She seemed to have only two solutions for the patients who come to her: get rid of the diary in the diet, and ditch the gluten. Get rid of the American "white diet". That's it.

The second half of the book, however, does demonstrate that she doesn't just prescribe one thing for all patients. For instance, one patient came to her with sleep problems and an otherwise healthy diet. Getting her onto 0.5mg of melatonin supplement an hour before bedtime meant she could sleep through the night. She explains why melatonin is a good solution and why it is not addictive. Another patient came to her from a vegetarian background with muscular development issues. Adding choline and fish oil to his diet resolved his issues. She does caution that sometime fish oil by itself isn't enough and that other forms of intervention are required. She diagnosed one case of a patient ingesting pesticide from fruit.

She presents interesting theories about why there's been a recent rise in gluten sensitivity (not the same as celiac disease): the amount of gluten in wheat that has been harvested has gone up, due to "improved breeding" and other interventions. She also explains why she recommends fish oil supplements over just adding more fish to the diet: the risk of mercury poisoning.

While the book is wordy and repetitive, I found it useful in thinking about children's nutrition. For instance, once you take your kid off infant formula, you should think about where his Omega-3 is going to come from. In our case, it was more palliative than anything else, but it's not quite a "one trick pony" book that the first half of the book presents itself to be. Recommended.
3452209
As a practitioner of qigong, I found this book an interesting intro to the concept of energy and its effect on the body, told through the filter of the author's own experiences. Apart from a final chapter, however, there isn't a whole lot about self-healing, except for brief exercises at the end of each chapter, relating to a specific chakra. But Manuchehri does give a good overview of the chakras and links them to case histories in her own practice as an energy healer, and that makes up the bulk of the book.

I can't speak to the effectiveness of the techniques she describes, as I haven't tried them yet (stay tuned for details), and there are different theories about the chakras, depending on which tradition you're talking about. I do know, however, that the energy centers she writes about have parallels in qigong, which validated much of her discussion for me.

Unfortunately, the book also had some glaring errors, which could have been the result of poor editing. Like "prostrate" instead of prostate and "penile" where I'm pretty sure pineal was intended. And in the appendix, which summarizes the chakras and the info from the earlier chapters in tables, the table for the third chakra has the wrong location--it's the same as the one for the second chakra. When errors in basic information like that slip through, it makes me wonder what else has been missed or mistakenly inserted.

Still, this was a fast, easily digestible read that will get people started if they're interested in the subject and perhaps inspire them to seek out more.

Three and a half stars.
2796944
The essays in this book offer very general summaries on various aspects of the therapy profession with a few them focusing on how the work of healing could be advanced. Disappointingly, there's only one interpretation included in the entire book, but I think it's a good one:  "You seem to live your life as though you are apologizing all the time." pg 140  This seems to relate to the issue of the unconscious/hidden guilt or "unconscious crime" a child takes in when a parent blames him for the problems his parents are having.  When a parent gets openly or passive aggressively annoyed with their child's needs, how else is the child supposed to feel other than guilty?  A young child extends so much love and trust (attachment) to their parents that in order to preserve the connection, he will believe that he's at fault and then out of desperation split off the pain, related the burden, into his unconscious.  When the person grows up, he can examine what had happened and work on correcting the belief.  Although parents have positive intentions for their children, they may get stuck or bogged down by their acquired coping mechanisms adopted when they themselves were children.

The solution is to not deny the guilt and let opposite  feelings (reaction formation) mask the real feelings, but to support or make way for the mourning process ("constructive w-allowing") over not having been properly loved to let happen.  Some authors say that hidden guilt is something that can only be managed while others believe that it can be healed while yet others say that it's a combination of the two.  Kristen Neff says that the work of self compassion is the way to go.

If I understand it correctly, Reaction Formation is a "counter-phobic" reaction, and formation, the psyche employs to somehow maintain a thread of connection to the person's actual feelings.  The bully pattern, hormones aside, for example, is a defense cover up mask to express how a person secretly feels by expressing the opposite.  The person with this pattern may be unaware of this as he often uses a Rationalization for his behaviour.  So before "You seem to live your life as though you are apologizing all the time" can be considered, perhaps the layered on top defense first needs to be acknowledged, "You seem to live your life as though you are _________ all the time."  How can victimizers see that they are really just trying to express how unconsciously victimized they feel?  No child is actually guilty for the "invisible crime" they believe they have committed but this awareness needs to be emotionally experienced.

Perhaps one implication of this idea of hidden guilt is how it relates to the high end of the spectrum of alexthymia (personality trait related to the amount of feelings a person allows himself to feel).  It's often been said that if you can feel it, you can heal and "if you can't, you won't."  If those who are high in alexthymia (ie: those who primarily express their feelings through "primitive" defense mechanisms) are "unable" to feel past or present guilt, then the questions seem to be, "How can I support myself to feel and be okay with having feelings move/wave through as needed?  What attitudes can I adopt that will support this?" "What can I learn that will minimize my stress response system/amygdale/PTSD from being triggered?" etc

Although we are all unique, "I am nature's greatest miracle.  Since the beginning of time never has there been another with my mind, my heart, my eyes, my ears, my hands, my hair, my mouth. None that came before, none that live today, and none that come tomorrow can walk and talk and move and think exactly like me. All men are my brothers yet I am different from each.  I am a unique [person].." (Og Mandino), it seems that one more thing we all may have in common is that each of us may be carrying a certain hidden guilt for an "invisible crime" we didn't commit.
3102931
This is a pretty handy book in regards to some details on some of the major technologies shown in the Dr. Who series up to about the mid-80's. You get some great detail on items like the TARDIS, Daleks, and even a comprehensive bio of the Doctor himself. However much of the information featured on the book doesn't give you much more than dimensions and if you're lucky some detail on the diagram.

For the stuff they are comprehensive on you get a good amount of historic information as well as some technical. The history of the Time Lords is pretty well rounded for two pages of text, as is the history of the Doctor. K9 gets some exposure too, but it's hardly anything more than you would already know if you have been watching Tom Baker's Who anyway.

If you want to know about Daleks this book cover a lot. Not only the history and capabilities of the Daleks, but also illustrations of all the major Dalek models to the date of printing (including the Dalek Emperor). This includes a simple, yet effective illustration of what's inside a Dalek as well. There is also a healthy entry for the Dalek nemesis race the Movellans.

The Cybermen get a sizeable piece of the manual but all you really get is their history and illustrations of all the iterations of the Cybermen from the beginning up to the ones from the 80's (Tom Baker era). While it would be nice to get more info than what was provided (inner workings, weapons, ships they used, etc) on them I did like what they had.

Of course the main attraction is the TARDIS and you get some good detail on it in this book from the history, details on the Doctor's, basic control panel descriptions, capabilities, and more. You even get a silly cut out exercise in the back section of the book on how to make your own paper TARDIS.

Another interesting tibit you get in the book is the Doctor's tools, including the sonic screwdriver. Unfortunately you only get a brief description of that handy tool. They do mention all of the other tools in the TARDIS tool kit, but you get no description on their use.

Some things that are in the book like space ships give you nothing more than just a simple blueprint-styled illustrations with dimensions. On the offset you can glean some information like where the radar is placed, but that info is sparse at best.

All in all the Doctor Who Technical Manual is a mixed bag. In some instances you get some great information. Other you get hardly nothing at all. It's a rather thin paperback so don't expect a world of information. From what I can tell all the information on the book is indeed canon (for example the book refers to being an official guide and gives credit to scrip writers for resources). If it's just the basics you are looking for then this is a good start.