Circus of the Damned (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Book 3)

Amazon.com

The third novel of Hamilton's Anita Blake series has the petite necromancer fighting a giant cobra and a rogue vampire, Alejandro, who wants her for his human servant. Anita is still resisting the advances of Jean-Claude, St. Louis's master vampire, but she does need him on her side, if not in her bed. Anita's reluctant involvement in the odd goings-on at the supernatural Circus of the Damned introduces her to Richard, the werewolf of her dreams, and Larry, her powerful but nervous partner in zombie-raising.

Mystery fans will love the tightly plotted, Paretsky-esque action, and horror fans will love just about everything in this unusual series.

Book Description

First time in trade paperback: the third novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

In Circus of the Damned-now in trade paperback for the first time-a rogue master vampire hits town, and Anita gets caught in the middle of an undead turf war. Jean-Claude, the Master Vamp of the city, wants her for his own-but his enemies have other plans. And to make matters worse, Anita takes a hit to the heart when she meets a stunningly handsome junior high science teacher named Richard Zeeman. They're two humans caught in the crossfire-or so Anita thinks.

Download Description

Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, battles a centuries-old vampire with the soul of the city-and Anita's life-at stake in this supernatural thrill ride from New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton.

Customer Reviews:

good quick read.......2007-09-28

This is the last book of the Anita Blake series i have read as of this review (need to order the rest :o ) but i can safely say that this series is a winner. Each book so far has carried the series' plot forward, while at the same time you could pick one up and read it in any order, as they can almost be called separate books in a greater story line, much like the New Jedi Order books where for that series.

Not too long in length, this is a good book, and a quick read. i would recommend reading this in a place where you can focus on it, and wont be distracted. The first book i picked up (was the second book of the series, whoops!) i read on an airplane. i would imagine a long bus ride or other form of long travel it would be good for as well.

The only down side i personally find with this book, and the others of the Anita Blake series, is that i want to go and read them all after finishing one. Well, i guess thats not a bad thing, per say.

Last comment, as i have read now three of the series' books you could well call me a fan. If you are looking for a completely objective review, i suggest you take this one with a grain of salt...

Great Book.......2007-09-03

So I needed a Vamp fix after Black Dagger Brotherhood (best series I have read so far action, drama, passion, romance ...the works). So I decided to check out Anita Blake, it was not what I expected there has been no romance, or steamy scenes of any kind so far Im on book 3....but I AM NOT disappointed the action and drama is fast paced. I love a cycnical kick @$$ chick. I bought the first 11 and intend to read them all. It's a great series, very gory, gritty, and abit scary I LUV it;)Hard to stop reading once you start! I just wish she would get with Jean-Claude already...

Super Reader.......2007-08-26

There is a dose of politics in this one, both the human kind, and the vampire kind. The human issue is one of separatism, basically, as the Humans First organisation wants more information on and the ability to get rid of, the vampire power structures in the city.

This book again has Edward, which is always good.

Imagine if the Executioner or the Punisher got bored with hunting and killing crims and decided on something trickier, and you have a bit of an idea what Edward is about. Except that he is not so keen on the girls as the Executioner.

Another powerful group of supernaturals also roll into town, and there is a nice, big, battle, which is action packed and a lot of fun.

Another Thriller.......2007-06-04

Fantastic read. I couldn't guess the end the book was full of suspense action and betrayal. We saw Anita's life hand in the balance alongside Jean-Claude - will they ever get together..... already ordered the next book. Absolutely loved this book very short read (two nights) couldn't put it down. There is also a new possible love interest for Anita in this novel and we are left hanging for the next installment as to who she will pick! can't wait.

FINALLY a good introduction to the werewolves.......2007-03-27

We meet Richard who becomes Anita's new lust interest. Jean-Claude shows his heart. More kick-butt action from Anita. More murders, although the actual investigation scene wasn't as graphic as hunting down the animalistic vampire. Anita meets two more master vampires, both older than Nikolaos from Guilty Pleasures. She agress w/Mr. Oliver, the older master of the two, when he requests that she give up the name of the Master of the City so he can take over and reverse the legislation that legalizes vampires. He wants it back to survival-of-the-fitest becasue he strongly believes that the legalization of vampires will lead to extinction of humans. Anita accepts a date w/Richard however is poisoned. I don't want to give away any more but in this book Richard tells Anita that he believes Jean-Claude loves her and that he wishes her love in return. She denies it at first then admits that in some dark corner of her heart she might love him after all. But the fact that he is the living dead she refuses to believe it. She, however, starts to wonder how undead he really is, being that vampires are not supposed to have a soul or a reflection - yet Jean-Claude has a reflection. She accepts Richard being a were-wolf, even almost defends it at the very last page of the book.

Complete Vampire Chronicles (Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the body Thief)

Average customer rating:

Beautiful Box Set but Incomplete
Lestat Rocks My Boring World!
Fantastic Reading!!!
great books from anne rice
Thought provoking but belaboured

Complete Vampire Chronicles (Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the body Thief)
Anne Rice
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0345385403
Release Date: 1993-09-01

Amazon.com

For the first time you can find all your favorite night-stalking, blood-guzzling undead--Lestat, Claudia, Louis, Akasha, Armand, and Memnoch--all in the same place at the same time. Here, collected in one box-set, are the four bestselling, original titles of Anne Rice's sprawling vampire series.

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful Box Set but Incomplete.......2007-10-01

For any Anne Rice Vampire fans you cannot go past this beautiful Box Set with modern artwork cover designs. My only complaint is why on earth isn't the Fifth and final volume of the central plot Vampire Chronicles (before all those spin-offs) included??? The fifth and final volume "Memnoch the Devil" should definitely be included in the Box Set without which it is simply NOT complete when the finale ends nicely with Lestat's famous last words:

I am the Vampire Lestat. Let me pass now from fiction into legend.

THE END

9:43 February 28, 1994 Adieu, mon amour.

Lestat Rocks My Boring World!.......2007-09-16

Everyone else has basically described all four of these books for the most part, so let me make my review brief and to the point. Interview, Lestat, and Tale of the Body Thief were my favorite books of the four in the chronicles. Queen of the Damned, however was long, slow, and so detailed that it was the only book I managed to lose my attention to in streaks, and I have listened to them all unabridged, on tape, at work.

Sure, her books are a bit overrated, but they are also well-written and entertaining. Rice gives our dark heroes so much humanity that one can't help being attracted by them enough to want to become one as well at times. Nowhere is this point made more concise than by her favorite character, Lestat. I wish mortal men were as cool and insightful as "the brat prince!" Great, imaginative fun. Frank Muller's narration of the audio books is second to none.

Fantastic Reading!!!.......2007-09-16

I'm not big on vampire books but Anne Rice writes in such a way that you truly believe they are real people with real lives and all the thoughts and feelings we all have. In addition, they struggle with the issues of immortality and there are many.

great books from anne rice.......2007-01-28

i bought these books for my teen she couldnt put them down till they were all read anne rice is a great author

Thought provoking but belaboured.......2006-09-29

I would certainly recommend anyone who has an interest in this genre to read these books. Rice raises some very interesting concepts from the mind of the vampire. My only gripe (and a friend feels the same way) is that Rice tends to ramble - padding out relatively meaningless stuff, or stuff that you've already gleaned the concept of after two lines. I found myself skipping paragraphs & pages, which was detrimental to the flow. With some judicious editing and condensing they would be worthy of 5 stars. The fourth book doesn't quite hold up to the stds set with the first three...might be worth finding the trilogy.

Defending the Damned: Inside Chicago's Cook County Public Defender's Office

Average customer rating:

Good writer,didn't like the book though
what could be worse than being convicted of a crime you didn't commit?
Fast read... with some gory details
Focus Too Narrow
Totally riveting: the story of those who defend society's worst - and the rest of us

Defending the Damned: Inside Chicago's Cook County Public Defender's Office
Kevin Davis
Manufacturer: Atria
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Legal System | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0743270932

Book Description

Chicago was the nation's deadliest city in 2001, recording 666 homicides. For lawyers in the Cook County Public Defender's Office Murder Task Force, that meant a steady flow of new clients. Eight out of ten people arrested for murder in Chicago are represented by public defenders. They're assigned the most challenging and seemingly hopeless cases, yet they always fight to win.

One of those lawyers is Marijane Placek, a snakeskin boot-wearing, Shakespeare-quoting nonconformist whose courtroom bravado and sharp legal skills have made her a well-known figure around the courthouse. When an ex-convict was arrested on charges of killing a Chicago police officer that deadly year, Placek got the high-profile case, and her defense forms the hub around which the book's narrative revolves.

Veteran journalist Kevin Davis reveals the compelling true story of a team of battle-scarred lawyers fighting against all odds. Unflinching, gripping, and full of surprises, Defending the Damned is an unforgettable human story and engaging courtroom drama where life and death hang in the balance. Davis explores the motives that compel these lawyers to come to work in this dark corner of the criminal justice system and exposes their insular and often misunderstood world.

This groundbreaking work comes at a time when the country has seen how wrongful convictions have slipped through the system, that innocent people have been sent to death row, and that some police have lied or coerced suspects into confessing to crimes they did not commit. Such flaws drive these public defenders even harder to do their jobs, providing scrutiny to a long ignored and often broken system.

Davis's reporting offers an unvarnished account of public defenders as never seen before. A powerful melding of courtroom drama and penetrating truecrime journalism, Defending the Damned is narrative nonfiction at its finest.

Customer Reviews:

Good writer,didn't like the book though.......2007-08-05

I usually don't go for this kind of reading.Meaning I love true crime books,police books,etc.I don't have much sympathy for child murdering,violent evil people and defense attorneys trying to represent them and paint them in a better light with excuses.I know that is the job of a defense lawyer,I know everyone has a right to representation.Midway through the book,even though it is very well written.It just seemed to me nothing but excuses for the horrible criminals in the book.After the half way point,I threw the book out.

what could be worse than being convicted of a crime you didn't commit?.......2007-07-18

"Defending the Damned" takes dead aim on a problem that plagues the American criminal justice system - the conviction of the innocent.

Sometimes, defendants are convicted because they don't have the resources to mount a complete defense.

Even worse, however, they are sometimes convicted because the prosecutor has hidden evidence which would lead to a not guilty verdict.

There is significant documentation of such improper convictions, in a series by the Chicago Tribune, in a study by Columbia Law School, and especially in the marvelous work of Barry Scheck and his colleagues in the Innocence Project (see Actual Innocence: When Justice Goes Wrong and How to Make it Right).

It is a serious blemish on the American criminal justice system that too many prosecutors abuse their power, and get away with it.

My second novel,A Good Conviction, tells the story of a young man wrongfully convicted in a high profile Central Park murder, brought about by a prosecutor who knew the defendant was actually innocent and hid the exculpatory evidence that would have led to a not guilty verdict.

Several prosecutors and appeals attorneys helped me with the legal aspects of a Brady appeal in New York State, and all of them agreed that what I portrayed was both realistic and all too possible.

Readers have found it to be fast paced, exciting, and heartbreaking.

Dan Slepian, network producer of many crime and legal news shows, says ... "Having spent countless hours working with detectives, courts, attorneys, and wrongly convicted inmates I was most impressed with how well researched and accurate your narrative was. You really nailed it. In addition, it was a great read."

Judge (ret.) Leslie Crocker Snyder, former Manhattan Assistant District Attorney, first sex crimes prosecutor in the U.S., (see 25 to Life: The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth) says ... "A Good Conviction is a well written, well paced, and fascinating tale of prosecutorial abuse in the Manhattan DA's office. Makes one wonder how many other times something like this has occurred and just how high the abuse is actually sanctioned."

Michael Radelet, one of the authors of In Spite Of Innocence: Erroneous Convictions in Capital Cases, a study of over 400 cases of persons wrongly convicted of crimes carrying the death penalty says ... "A Good Conviction is an unusually gripping story of an erroneous conviction and the passionate fight to correct that injustice. Weinstein's account of what a bad prosecutor does to Joshua Blake provides a frightening and realistic parallel to many of the true life cases we documented in our study."

LEW WEINSTEIN

Fast read... with some gory details.......2007-07-08

Kevin Davis presents a side to the justice system - and of society - that does not generally receive positive public attention. I think he relates the facts fairly, and paints an almost comprehensive view of the characters who work at the CCPDO. I cannot claim a lack of bias and / or prejudice (since I work there as well), but overall I think the lawyers who work on Homocide Task Force are some of the best in the country, and I am proud to call them my colleagues. Best of all, they are great storytellers, humanists, and try to make a broken system work as best it can.

Focus Too Narrow.......2007-06-21

I'm an incoming law school student this fall after a few years teaching elementary school and I'm considering entering the fray of public defender work after I put in my three years of academic time. Hence, I eagerly bought this book hoping it would give me some insight to this sector of the profession because I am attending school in Illinois and assume I'll practice within the state someday.

However, I was saddened to learn that the book focuses merely on Cook County's "Murder Task Force." Essentially, this is a group of public defenders who defend those indigents charged with murder--a high percentage of whom are worthless trash... those speedily deserved of painful executions.

The author should have instead focused on the work of public defenders who do misdemeanor and lower class felony defense--the attorneys who have an actual shot at saving lives worth living.

Subhuman cop killers do indeed deserve a superb defense at trial. However, after conviction they are lost causes in my opinion. Public defenders that can play social worker as well as attorney and give people a second shot at life are the real heroes.

Attorneys who defend indigents who dismember and deep fry their infant children are not.

The author focused on the "Murder Task Force" because murder is a sexy topic. He chose this writing path because he wanted ultimately to sell a book. In the process, he gave up the opportunity to show what it is really like on the inside of the Cook County Public Defender's Office.

Technically speaking--the book isn't poorly written. However, the progression of events in the book is haphazard and includes mention of several smaller cases mixed in with the one big case on which he chose to focus the book. It seemed to me like the author wanted to really write a book about the cop killer case and threw in some extra jibbrish about other cases just to beef up the book he ended up with.

I recommend this book for anyone considering PD work, just don't get your hopes up concerning the insight you'll receive from such.

Totally riveting: the story of those who defend society's worst - and the rest of us.......2007-06-17

Few people leave any lasting mark on the world, their lives soon forgotten. Kevin Davis, with this singular book, will be remembered long after his life is over. It may seem overwrought to compare "Defending The Damned" with, say, "All Quiet On The Western Front", but after you've read Davis's book, you'll see the comparison is very apt.

Davis takes us deep into a world that the vast majority of us will thankfully never have the opportunity to experience directly. It is the world of those who labor on the Murder Task Force of the Cook County [Illinois] Public Defender's Office. Here a small group of men and women, lawyers investigators and others, daily protect the legal rights of some of the foulest creatures to walk the face of the earrh. A mother who cuts up the corpse of her freshly murdered infant and deep-fries the parts. A man who gets his natural daughter pregnant and than beats her to death.

As one of the lawyers asks "How do you come home and explain that you just saved the life of a serial killer who smoked crack and murdered three women?"

Kevin Davis does an incredible job of explaining just that. He profiles several of the lawyers and their helpers who fighr every day to protect the legal rights of the accused - - - an incredibly important job that few people appreciate - - - and then try to keep the state from executing those of their clients who are found guilty of murder.

I am a proponent of capital punishment: those who murder deserve to die in return. It is only just. But I have a caveat: capital punishment should only be imposed when the accused has received a truly full and impartial trial, represented by highly competent counsel and provided with all the resources so readily available to the state, such as expert witnesses. Effectively this means capital punishment, in my opinion, is rarely acceptable.

There either been a spate of books lately on the criminal justice system or I've simply been reading more of what's available. Davis's work ties for a mythical first place with David Feige's "Indefensible: One Lawyer's Journey into the Inferno of American Justice". Davis's book provides an overview of life in the public defender's office, while Feige provides first-hand perspective from a former public defender. Both are to be read by anyone interested in the criminal justice system.

John Grisham provides a terrifying narrative of whar happens when the criminal justice system fails in "The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town".

Finally, the old-time liberal view of blame the victim and society is on display in Steve Bogira's "Courtroom 302: A Year Behind the Scenes in an American Criminal Courthouse".

Davis doesn't bring an axe to grind. He reports on the everyday work of public defenders like Marijane Placek, who comes across as an eccentric who is absolutely dedicated to the ideals of Americsn justice. Davis also give fair hearings to the prosecutors, judges, victims and their families and the murderers themselves. It is truly a tour de force rarely seen these days. The objective reporter telling the story.

There isn't a page in the book that isn't in some way compelling. Kevin Davis need never write another book: his reputation is made with "Defending The Damned".

There will be many people who find the work of Marijane Placek and her colleagues in the public defender's office to be reprehensible: their business is to defend some of the most vile people imaginable. The truth is that their work must not only be respected, but must be appreciated for these men and women are protecting the Constitutional rights of all of us when they vigorously defend the rights of these reprehensible people. Why they do it, what motivates them, what keeps them in the fray is what Kevin Davis describes so well. Never overtly stated, but always present is also the message that when these public defenders fight to protect the rights of the worst among us, they are also protecting our rights.

"Defending The Damned" is simply a must-read.

Jerry

Laurell K. Hamilton Set - Guilty Pleasures, The Laughing Corpse, Circus of the Damned and The Lunatic Cafe

Average customer rating:

Fun!
Bubble Gum
Amazing books
Got me Started
Anita Blake foursome....

Laurell K. Hamilton Set - Guilty Pleasures, The Laughing Corpse, Circus of the Damned and The Lunatic Cafe
Laurell K. Hamilton
Manufacturer: Jove
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0515136174

Customer Reviews:

Fun!.......2007-09-09

I bought this series for my boyfriend and have found myself paging through it. Hamilton's novels are quite fun and full of action, which keeps the reader energized. However, those expecting these works to mirror Anne Rice will not be satisfied, as these novels lack the level of detail present in Anne Rice novels. They do of course concern themselves with vampires, so those fond of Anne Rice will have fun with these. Definitely worth the read!

Bubble Gum.......2007-08-18

Bubble gum is not good for your teeth, but I chew it anyhow. I know it will satisfy a craving consistently. Like bubble gum, I cannot stop chewing up these books. It is primarily the sexual tension on the pages and the fact that I am a Buffy fan and need my vampire fix. The plots are formulaic, and Ms. Hamilton does need a better editor. "Alright," though used, is not really acceptable in formal text. In the third volume, Anita's car gets totaled, and then suddenly, she has a car again to follow someone to the million-year-old vampire's digs. I also cannot stand some of the author's phrases, such as "heap big vampire slayer." Quite possibly I cringe because no young woman would talk like this. As well, I have a hard time buying some of Anita's outfits. I was in my twenties in the late 90's, and I never would have worn the ensembles Anita wears. Thank God that Blake is taking some hints from the Master of the City. Granted the protagonist has bigger things on her mind; however, she dresses like the would-be love child of Richard Simmons and Minnie Pearl. There are some other typos and logical inconsistencies scattered throughout other books. All the things I just mentioned are "nitpicky," but some of them do stop me in my tracks as I am flying through the pages. I do not want to encounter sand when I am chewing my gum.

Amazing books.......2007-06-27

Perfect! I finished this box set in less than a week. The books have excellent plots, detailed characters, and witty humor that have me laughing out loud. I made the mistake of getting one of the later books first and was so glad I started at the beginning. These books are fun and frisky. Definitely a recommended read for those who like action, romance, and refreshing characters.

Got me Started.......2007-03-17

This 4-book set was the first I had read of the Anita Blake series. I have since ordered another 5 books from that series and will order the rest after I read those. These are really well written and move right along with interesting characters and plots.

Anita Blake foursome...........2007-03-15

Anyone who loves Laurell K Hamilton will love this foursome. These are the first books in the Anita Blake series and well worth your time for a great price.

Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists

Average customer rating:

Damn Lies and Statistics
Great book
An Excellent Beginner's Guide to the Use and Misuse of Social Statistics
It does what it is supposed to do
A Crash Course in Statistics for the Uninitiated

Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists
Joel Best
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0520219783

Amazon.com

When it comes to thinking about statistics, there are four kinds of people: awestruck, naive, cynical, and critical. According to sociologist Joel Best, the vast majority of people are naive (yes, you too probably suffer from a mild case of innumeracy), and the result is mutant statistics, guesswork, and poor policy decisions. "Bad statistics live on," writes Best in this highly accessible book, "they take on lives of their own." Take this one: a psychologist's estimate that perhaps 6 percent of priests were at some point sexually attracted to young people was transformed through a chain of errors into the "fact" that 6 percent of priests were pedophiles. Then there was the one about eating disorders. An original estimate that 150,000 women were anorexic, made by concerned activists, mutated into 150,000 women dying from the disorder annually (the truth: about 70 women a year). But these two mutant statistics have been published and passed along as facts for years, enduring long after the truth has been pointed out.

In an effort to turn people into critical thinkers, Best presents three questions to ask about all statistics and the four basic sources of bad ones. He shows how good statistics go bad; why comparing statistics from different time periods, groups, etc. is akin to mixing apples and oranges; and why surveys do little to clarify people's feelings about complex social issues. Random samples, it turns out, are rarely random enough. He also explains what all the hoopla is over how the poverty line is measured and the census is counted. What is the "dark figure"? How many men were really at the Million Man March? How is it possible for the average income per person to rise at the same time the average hourly wage is falling? And how do you discern the truth behind stat wars? Learn it all here before you rush to judgment over the next little nugget of statistics-based truth you read. --Lesley Reed

Book Description

Does the number of children gunned down double each year? Does anorexia kill 150,000 young women annually? Do white males account for only a sixth of new workers? Startling statistics shape our thinking about social issues. But all too often, these numbers are wrong. This book is a lively guide to spotting bad statistics and learning to think critically about these influential numbers. Damned Lies and Statistics is essential reading for everyone who reads or listens to the news, for students, and for anyone who relies on statistical information to understand social problems.
Joel Best bases his discussion on a wide assortment of intriguing contemporary issues that have garnered much recent media attention, including abortion, cyberporn, homelessness, the Million Man March, teen suicide, the U.S. census, and much more. Using examples from the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other major newspapers and television programs, he unravels many fascinating examples of the use, misuse, and abuse of statistical information.
In this book Best shows us exactly how and why bad statistics emerge, spread, and come to shape policy debates. He recommends specific ways to detect bad statistics, and shows how to think more critically about "stat wars," or disputes over social statistics among various experts. Understanding this book does not require sophisticated mathematical knowledge; Best discusses the most basic and most easily understood forms of statistics, such as percentages, averages, and rates.
This accessible book provides an alternative to either naively accepting the statistics we hear or cynically assuming that all numbers are meaningless. It shows how anyone can become a more intelligent, critical, and empowered consumer of the statistics that inundate both the social sciences and our media-saturated lives.

Download Description

Does the number of children gunned down double each year? Does anorexia kill 150,000 young women annually? Do white males account for only a sixth of new workers? Startling statistics shape our thinking about social issues. But all too often, these numbers are wrong. This book is a lively guide to spotting bad statistics and learning to think critically about these influential numbers. Damned Lies and Statistics is essential reading for everyone who reads or listens to the news, for students, and for anyone who relies on statistical information to understand social problems. Joel Best bases his discussion on a wide assortment of intriguing contemporary issues that have garnered much recent media attention, including abortion, cyberporn, homelessness, the Million Man March, teen suicide, the U.S. census, and much more. Using examples from the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other major newspapers and television programs, he unravels many fascinating examples of the use, misuse, and abuse of statistical information. In this book Best shows us exactly how and why bad statistics emerge, spread, and come to shape policy debates. He recommends specific ways to detect bad statistics, and shows how to think more critically about "stat wars," or disputes over social statistics among various experts. Understanding this book does not require sophisticated mathematical knowledge; Best discusses the most basic and most easily understood forms of statistics, such as percentages, averages, and rates. This accessible book provides an alternative to either naively accepting the statistics we hear or cynically assuming that all numbers are meaningless. It shows how anyone can become a more intelligent, critical, and empowered consumer of the statistics that inundate both the social sciences and our media-saturated lives.

Customer Reviews:

Damn Lies and Statistics.......2007-09-24

This truly excellent small book gives a thorough and non-mathematical overview of the dangers and usefulness of statistics. Giving real-life examples of statistical manipulation (without beating one over the head with mathematical formulae). A marvelous way to look at Social Statistics with an inquisitive and educated eye - without having to know the mathematical basis for statistical analysis.
AS an undergrad I actually did graduate level work in statistics but enough years have passed that I would be hard pressed to use the knowledge. This book gave me an excellent way to look at statistics in such a way that they are now much more useful to me, not just in my clinical practice but in reading the newspaper.
Emilio J. Vazquez, MD

Great book.......2007-02-24

First and foremost, as an avid fan of the topic of Statistics in general, I felt compelled to read this book. I had read another of Joel Best's book, More Damned Lies and Statistics: How Numbers Confuse Public Issues, and it was shocking to say the least. In the process of deciding which book I was going to read I contemplated between How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff, but I felt that book was more of a `pocket-guide' instead of a dense book. Also, I wanted to read a book that was perhaps more current, in terms of publication than Huff's book. Published in 2001, Best's book shows some current social statistics, which perhaps may be more relevant in our time period.
Upon finishing Best's book I notice that it was jam-packed with information that the average person wouldn't know about every day statistics. For example, he touches on the topic of AIDS statistics, and prostitution statistics, in an effort to show that the statistics are skewed. In my opinion, I think it was very appropriate that a sociologist wrote this book because, it is virtually a reflection of how society reports, views, and interprets statistics. It is mind-stirring when he shows that statistics on the same subject cannot be accurately compared if they are from a different time-period. Due to the fact that Ceteris Paribas is not present when comparing statistics from different time periods, in essence they are like comparing, as Best puts it, "apples to oranges".
Also, another startling area of the book is when Best describes the misunderstanding and the fallacies that occur with reporting and interpreting statistics. For instance, in chapter three of his book, he reports that an estimated 150 thousand women are diagnosed with anorexia, or better known as the most common eating disorders among young women. While that may be a `good' statistic, people began to misinterpret that statistic with the conclusion that 150 thousand women die because of anorexia. This fallacy occurred because people assume that anorexia can be fatal, and since 150 thousand of them had it, they then assumed all of them died. This, as Best puts it, is far from the truth, as less than 100 of them actually die (roughly around 70). He gives other examples of common social problems with statistics and shows that a post-hoc fallacy is very common in a world where people are rather naïve when it comes to statistics in general.
Perhaps the notion of statistics causing social problems is one too radical for the average American to recognize. How can statistics be the cause of problems? Best also addresses that a `bad' statistics can cause social problems. On page fifty, Best explains how "measurement decisions are hidden" and often times some statistical reports ignore controversies about measurement, and even well-established measures can be controversial. Not surprisingly, some of the measurement decisions, are just plain wrong. The reports to some statistics that the media feeds us are just completely wrong.
Best mentions another rather relevant problem; "questionable definitions". He cites that often times the definitions for a particular statistic are vague and can easily be manipulated. He asks us to consider the flurry of media coverage about `epidemics'. We must ask ourselves, what is an epidemic? More importantly, how does the particular author reporting the statistic define what an epidemic is? Making a vague statement like that can be very dangerous to society. It can spread false fears, and in essence, a misrepresented sense of reality. Another important factor when determining if a statistic is manipulated is based on sample size. Best gives us examples of how a small sample size is really a poor basis for generalizations. For example, let's consider that I ask 3 women to give their view on abortion and they can either choose pro-life or pro-choice. My results are going to be 0%, 33.3%, 66.6%, or 100%, depending on their responses. However, it is absurd to think that a true conclusion can be drawn from such a small sample size.
I feel this book is a great book to read, not only for entertainment purposes, but also as a preventative measure regarding everyday statistics that we encounter. In his final chapter "The Critical Approach", he requests that we use a method of critical thinking when viewing statistics. The author encourages us as a society, to interpret statistics in a skeptical manner, but warns us not to be cynical. We cannot just take statistics at face value. I feel that we hold a responsibility to inform ourselves and view new information with a skeptics view. It is vital to prevent social chaos by swallowing every bit of numbers from the media, politicians, and activists. I think that perhaps if society took a less naïve approach to things of this nature, then we would not have so many "stat wars" in our society. Finally, the most important part of the book is that it encourages the reader to take a skeptic view on social statistics. I recommend this book to virtually any active member of our culture.

An Excellent Beginner's Guide to the Use and Misuse of Social Statistics.......2007-02-09

"Statistics," Joel Best asserts in his concluding chapter, "are a sort of fetish," borrowing a term from anthropology to describe objects that different cultures invest with magical powers. "We think of statistics as facts that we discover, not as numbers we create. But of course, statistics do not exist independently; people have to create them. Reality is complicated, and every statistic is someone's summary, a simplification of that complexity." And as they say, therein lies the tale.

DAMNED LIES AND STATISTICS offers an outstanding introduction to the use and misuse of social statistics. This book is not a mathematical treatise - far from it. In straightforward prose filled with real world examples, Mr. Best deconstructs the processes by which social statistics are created (sometimes as little more than educated guesses) and take on a life of their own, primarily through blind and unquestioning repetition by the media. He also delineates how such statistics are sometimes mutated, misinterpreted, misapplied, and manipulated.

In Mr. Best's view, there are no perfect statistics, just better or worse ones. Every statistic involves human choices: defining what to measure, determining how to measure it, deciding whom to count or how to count it, and choosing how to deal with unreported cases (the dark figure) of whatever is being counted. Not only does every statistic contain identifiable but generally unrecognized strengths, weaknesses, and dark figures, but many of the most controversial and heavily publicized statistics were created by people in advocacy positions. As Mr. Best repeatedly points out, advocates use statistics to reinforce public concern about the seriousness of their pet issues. Since large statistics capture more attention, publicity, and financial contributions for the advocacy group than small ones, issue advocates will naturally be drawn toward problem definitions, counting measures, survey methods, and assumptions most supportive of their goals.

Mr. Best does a commendable job of citing numerous real world instances of bad or misleading statistics, including several whose original meanings were gradually transformed into altogether different interpretations. His examples range over a full panoply of public domain issues - female deaths from anorexia, prevalence of church arsons, homicide incidence by race, teen suicides, the number of crack babies, attendance figures for the Million Man March, the number of homeless people, the number of children killed with guns, and so forth. The author breaks down his examples into readily understandable classifications, such as bad guesses, deceptive definitions, confusing questions, biased sampling, misinterpretation of results, and improper comparisons between groups or over time. Only in his final chapter, "Thinking about Social Statistics," does his penchant for classifications lead him astray. His assessment of how to address the prevalence and too-willing consumption of bad statistics offers little more than a call for the public to stop being naïve or hypercritical about numbers and instead become critical consumers. He offers no call for improved practical education about statistics in schools, no demand for better training on this issue in schools of journalism, no request that the media research and report more frequently (even as background on their websites) the methods and assumptions behind the numbers they report. In an age where issue-measuring numbers multiply uncontrollably and are available instantaneously, the public needs more reality check protection and online access to this background information than ever before.

DAMNED LIES AND STATISTICS is an easily readable and informative introduction to the human problems of statistics. I recommend it (along with Cynthia Crossen's equally valuable TAINTED TRUTH) as an interesting supplement for high school advanced placement or college statistics classes or first classes in current affairs or sociology. No mathematical background is required, but students and other readers will find much in this text to discuss and contemplate. I recommend this book highly for people of modest math backgrounds who are concerned about the rampant and seemingly uncontrollable growth of fetish-like numbers that purport to define our major social issues. Mr. Best would argue that there is always more to these numbers than immediately meets the eye.

It does what it is supposed to do.......2007-01-17

This book does what I believe it was intended to do very well: It provides a window through which the general public can get a first glimpse of the dangers of accepting statistics as absolute. The book's length, title, and repetition of certain common statistical flaws address are tailor made for the general reader.

Damned Lies and Statistics is on my required reading list. If more people understood how they were being numerically manipulated from all angles, we'd all be better off. And I believe that is the ultimate job of a writer.

A Crash Course in Statistics for the Uninitiated.......2005-10-11

Mr. Best's book is really a pamphlet designed to inform the lay person about how statistics are constructed and used. It is also an expose of how statistical information can be exagerrated in the name of a cause. Damned Lies and Statistics succeeds fairly well at both those tasks.

...And yet, having been through a few courses on statistics in college, I found a great deal of the book was already known to me. This, in and of itself, is not an issue; however, I was somewhat disappointed by the author's analysis of the motives of those who would abuse statistical techniques. I think the book would have benefited from more examples to illustrate his points. After finishing I was left wanting more. I suppose that's why he wrote a followup to this book (More Damned Lies and STatistics).

I would recommend this book only to people with very limited knowledge of statistics. If you use statistics regularly or have taken a course or two on the subject, you'll quickly become bored with this.

The Book of the Damned (Secret Books of Paradys)

Average customer rating:

I liked this book, but...
"Malice in Saffron" excellent
Too much of a good(?) thing
It's original
Bizarre, compelling, and original!

The Book of the Damned (Secret Books of Paradys)
Tanith Lee
Manufacturer: Overlook Hardcover
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0879514086

Customer Reviews:

I liked this book, but..........2003-03-16

I agree with everyone that says Malice in Saffron is what makes this book worth reading. The third story, the empires of Azure, is also interesting and well written. It takes you back to roaring twenties Paris, and although the time frame is more modern, it is just as well written. The first story was what tried my patience, it was a vampire story featuring Andre Saint Jean, meant to be the vampire Lestat, I think of this series, but who was also a whiny, self absorbed fool. This story drones on through page after page of prose, until it finally comes to it's meandering, sniveling end.
I understand, it wasn't Tanith Lee's fault though, it was Andre St. Jean's. He just had to have his say.
I still didn't like this series as much as I liked some of her other books, such as The Silver Metal Lover, and my favorite of all time (so far) Biting the Sun. I highly recommend them, not only as some of her best work, but as some of the best fantasy that I have ever read.

"Malice in Saffron" excellent.......2002-04-07

The Book of the Damned is perhaps the best of Tanith Lee's Books of Paradyse series, if only for the presence of the second novella, "Malice in Saffron". The first novella, "Stained with Crimson" begins with an interesting encounter, but becomes so mired in atmosphere and more atmosphere that the plot becomes indecipherable. Still, it evokes such a sense of hopelessness (in me at least!) that it's worth a read just to feel one's emotions tugged so. The third novella, "Empires of Azure", is less compelling. The characters feel caricatured despite Lee's typically stylish prose. It should be for "Malice in Saffron" that you buy this book. Jehanine, a peasant girl who's raped by her (step?)father, undergoes a personality split when she flees to Paradyse. Her nighttime persona of a carousing, murderous young man is a gripping portrayal of repressed rage finally unleashed. Late in the story, Lee introduces a plague to the city, and her subsequent descriptions rank with Camus, in my opinion, for depicting mass reaction to that particular fear of death (obviously, I like Lee very much). Finally, the twist of the "miracle" meal caps the story in a very satisfying manner. I think readers of various genres, fantasy, horror, even history, will get a kick out of this story.

Too much of a good(?) thing.......2001-06-01

The first novella ("Stained with Crimson") rambled along deliriously until it had long overstayed its welcome. The second ("Malice in Saffron") was relentlessly, unapologetically violent. After slogging through those two, I dragged my feet at reading the third ("Empires of Azure"), but it was best, evoking the spine-tingling suspense of a Gothic horror tale.

Throughout, there was too much emphasis on gender-bending in all its permutations. It would have been a nice touch, if it hadn't been so liberally applied. You had your men with women, men with men, women with women, men with women dressed as men, men with men dressed as women, men turning into women, women turning into men, people of the either/or variety turning into... well I guess they were pretty contented as-is. As for myself, I was more than ready to simply call everyone "a person" and never mind who they slept with, but that would have eliminated two thirds of the book.

There you have it. It was fantasy, it was horror, and it was a blatant call for publicly-funded sex change surgery.

It's original.......2000-06-04

I like a lot of the ideas Tanith Lee shows here, her stories are very original, with gender changing and cross dressing, but I can't really relate to her characters. She brings you almost to the brink of seeing what they are like, then seems to remove you from them before you feel like you really know them. Her writing style is like that, it seems very impersonal, and sometimes I get lost in her descriptions and I can't figure out exactly what she means by this or that. What I like about these stories though, is that they are exotic, original and not afraid to be dark. Not a bad read. I thought they would be better though, when I first heard about them.

Bizarre, compelling, and original!.......1999-08-02

First in the Paradys Tetralogy, "The Book of the Damned" is a three-part exploration into the dark, decadent, and thoroughly bizarre (but completely enjoyable) world of Paradys, something of an alternate-world Paris steeped in sorcery and darkness since its earliest days.

The first story, "Stained With Crimson," is a less-than-conventional vampire tale. Andre St. Jean, a poet living in Paradys shortly after the Revolution, becomes the owner of a ruby ring in the shape of a scarab and is shortly thereafter introduced to the owner of the ring, the beautiful Antonina Scarabin. His obsession with Antonina leads to her death and his...and their dual gender-bending resurrection as Anthony and Anna. Pursued becomes pursuer, predator becomes prey, and it all grows surreal and cyclical. While not my personal favorite of the three, the story is excellent. The language, rich with color, is descriptive and disturbing; the reader views Andre/Anna's story through the poet's dream-darkened eyes. "Stained With Crimson" is expertly told, dark and ironic, and maintains its dreamlike quality up to and past the last line of the story.

The second novella, "Malice in Saffron" is my personal favorite of the three and, to tell the truth, one of my all-time favorite short stories. Taking place in medieval times, it follows a young woman named Jehanine from her country farm, where she is raped by her brutal step-father, to the City Paradys, where her disbelieving brother Pierre--gifted with a topaz cross by the same doting father that so abused Pierre's sister--rejects her violently. She is then led by a mysterious dwarf into a bizarre double life: by day she lives as Jhane in the Nunnery of the Angel, a quiet female penitent; by night she is Jehan, a beautiful and cruel young man who leads a gang of thieves and cutthroats to greater and greater atrocities. When the Black Death comes to Paradys, Jehanine is forced to confront the conjunction of her two lives...add a holy vision, an enigmatic, and a bizarre redemption, and you have some idea of the complexity of Jehanine's story. Stark, painful, and ultimately beautiful, "Malice in Saffron" is a fascinating tale that deserves at least two re-readings: once for the story and once to understand it, or at try and unravel the stunning weave Tanith Lee has set before you.

The last story, "Empires of Azure," is a ghost story set in 1930's Paradis, but hearkening back to a time when the city was known as Par Dis, a community of silver mines at the fringe of the Roman Empire. Told through the eyes of a journalist, a young woman who uses the male pseudonym St. Jean--a tribute to Andre St. Jean of the first story--"Empires of Azure" follows Louis de Jenier, a cross-dresser who moves into a house said to be haunted by the girl who was murdered there years ago. In time, the house with its blue-stained windows yields up two things to Louis: a spider-shaped earring made of sapphires, and visions of Timonie, the murdered young woman. Timonie herself possessed the earring, believing it to be a link to Tiy-Amonet, an Alexandrian sorceress and the mistress to the Roman commander of Par Dis...but neither Tiy-Amonet nor Louis de Jenier are what they appear, as Mademoiselle St. Jean soon discovers. Most of the story seems distanced from the reader, as all but the very beginning and ending are Louis' actions as told by the journalist St. Jean, but the language is no less flawless and the story, despite its odd structure, holds together masterfully.

Book Description

Irreverent, charming, eminently quotable, this handbook--an eccentric etiquette guide for the human race--contains sixty-nine aphorisms, anecdotes, whimsical suggestions, maxims, and cautionary tales from Mark Twain's private and published writings. It dispenses advice and reflections on family life and public manners; opinions on topics such as dress, health, food, and childrearing and safety; and more specialized tips, such as those for dealing with annoying salesmen and burglars. Culled from Twain's personal letters, autobiographical writings, speeches, novels, and sketches, these pieces are delightfully fresh, witty, startlingly relevant, and bursting with Twain's characteristic ebullience for life. They also remind us exactly how Mark Twain came to be the most distinctive and well-known American literary voice in the world. These texts, some of them new or out of print for decades, have been selected and meticulously prepared by the editors at the Mark Twain Project.

Customer Reviews:

A Treasure.......2007-02-11

Here are some useful living tips, advice and observations from that quintessential American literary figure Mark Twain, real name Samuel L. Clemens. This compilation contains a delightful mix of humorous writings on the mundane and sometimes very unusual occurrences that reflected his many gifts as a writer/humorist. Many of these snippets are from some of his more famous works, while others are from personal sketches and writings not as well known. The tarantulas escape, a borrowed overcoat, a lecture to a youth group, the use of foul language, a note to a burglar, and so many other little anecdotes, observations, and etc will elicit periods of laughter from the reader, as it did for me. A wonderful little treasure.

Twain at his best........2007-01-10

Great book with lots of his famous quotes that still apply today.

"Etiquette requires us to respect the human race".......2006-02-23

Mark Twain in his writing very often surprises us and makes us laugh. His greatest gift is his humor. And the wisdom he provides on various aspects of daily living however sarcastic and cynical it may seem at times is grounded in a sane realistic view of humanity.

The Complete Books of Charles Fort: The Book of the Damned / Lo! / Wild Talents / New Lands

Average customer rating:

Fort, FOrt, FORT
Fossils in meteorites?
Hegelian philosophy + ostentatious prose = Charles Fort
Mind open, tongue in cheek, questions ready.
Reading is one of the things you should do for yourself.

The Complete Books of Charles Fort: The Book of the Damned / Lo! / Wild Talents / New Lands
Charles Fort
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0486230945

Book Description

This scholarly exploration of the borderlands between science and fantasy features four complete works by the redoubtable Charle Fort (1874-1932): The Book of the Damned, Lo!, Wild Talents, and New Lands. All concern the bizarre phenomena unexplained by traditional science: flying saucers, telekinesis, sudden showers of fish from the sky, stigmata, poltergeists, and spontaneous combustion.

Customer Reviews:

Fort, FOrt, FORT.......2005-12-12

What An Amazing Man,

I wonder whether he knew of eris because at least unknowningly he is an agent of her, read these books, they are excelent and blow your mind from the status quo, and the status quo = grey face.

read and learn
learn and read
if all else
laugh

go now

Hail Eris
All Hail Discordia

Kalisti

Fossils in meteorites?.......2004-12-12

From page 80 in Fort's "The Book Of The Damned" published in 1919: "Dr. Hahn said he had found fossils in meteorites." Fred Hoyle, the British astronomer, published in his 1984 book "The Intelligent Universe," photographs of fossils in a meteorite. Of course, in 1996 NASA announced finding fossils in a meteorite. What took NASA so long?

Fort's point: What doesn't fit in is damned. What other strange phenomena have been excluded from respectable consideration? Fort tells of fish and stones falling from the clouds, strange craft cruising the skies in the 1890's, lights moving beneath the surface of the sea, vitrified (melted) stone forts in Scotland, disappearing stars, red rain, unknown planets crossing the sun, and sea serpents.

Fort's style of extreme and fantastic hyperbole makes for difficult reading until the reader allows his thinking to slide into the Fortean mode. Of course, thats what Fort had in mind all along, to stretch the reader's thinking to the point where he will at least consider what others have ignored.

Hegelian philosophy + ostentatious prose = Charles Fort.......2002-08-01

No author has had a greater intellectual influence on me than Charles Fort. As an eight year old I had no idea what he was talking about, but I was enchanted by his writing style. When I read Fort today it is for literary enjoyment. Inimitable writers are, unfortunately, too often imitated. However, an ardent Fortean could identify a Fortean paragraph as easily as he could identify his mother in a photograph. Here are some excerpts, selected at random, from this behemoth text. If you find the following samples unpalatable, you're going to hate this book:

page 38 - So Science functions for and serves society at large, and would, from society at large, receive no support, unless it did so divert itself or dissipate and prostitute itself. It seems that by prostitution I mean usefulness.

page 324 - That our existence, a thing within one solar system, or supposed solar system, is a stricken thing that is mewling through space, shocking able-minded, healthy systems with the sores on its sun, its ghastly mooons, its civilizations that are all broken out with sciences; a celestial leper, holding out doddering expanses into which charitable systems drop golden comets?

page 389 - We assemble the data. Unhappily, we shall be unable to resist the tempation to reason and theorize. May Super-embryology have mercy upon our own syllogisms. We consider that we are entitled to at least 13 pages of gross and stupid erors. After that we shall have to explain.

page 643 - As to data that we shall now take up, I say to myself: "You are a benign ghoul, digging up the dead, old legends and superstitions, trying to breath life into them. Well, then, why have you neglected Santa Claus?"

What use is Fort today? Most published Forteans (Keel, Coleman) are on-site researchers, methodically tracking down and experiencing that of which they write. The only place Charles Fort traveled to was the library.

Fort would think that his writings and opinions were above classification, and if anyone is, he is probably the one. But we have to connect all writers to something. I see alot of Hegel in his writings, particularly in his dialectical analyses and his fixation on negation. Hegel's famous quote - The whole of philosophy resembles a circle of circles - is hearkened to in Fort's famous circle quotation. But this is no philosophy text. You could boil down Fort's philosophy in Book of Damned to a concise three pages. Yet Fort reiterates, and rephrases, and belabors. And it's excruciatingly enjoyable. If you don't like being told the same thing over and over again, albeit wittiily and elaborately and incorrigibly, don't read this book.

I treat Fort like I treat the Bible. I don't mean that irreverently (I happen to think the Bible is pretty holy meself). Open the 1100+ page book anywhere, and read a chapter. Be enlightened, be bemused, be annoyed. Maybe the response is the key. Fort had his pet theories, and they are absurd. But he was onto something. An absoluteness I think. He lambasts religion, and he really lays into science. This may offend people, but theories are meant to be attacked, aren't they? And that is the primary Fortean dogma.

Forteans are a motley and diverse bunch. Yes, you'll find UFO passages, animal mutilations, falling frogs. To me, the details are only significant in volume. If you decide to read this book, leave your pet theories outside of the covers.

I like to believe that Fort was searching for the Absolute, even if the Absolute turns out to be completely absurd to the human perspective. If absolute theories exist, it might only be our ignorance and prejudice which make them absurd.

Oh I could say that everybody should read this book. But the fact is most people won't get through the first chapter. This book is an artifact in many ways, and was written for people with certain intellectual and literary backgrounds. If that sounds a bit snobbish, so be it. Fort was such a snob that he kept his circle of friends exceedingly small, and treated well-respected ideas like lepers. Today, I encounter this book much like I did almost twenty years ago. Like a child, full of wonder, and ready to believe and disbelieve anything.

Mind open, tongue in cheek, questions ready........2001-04-16

It would be foolish, really, to try and write a review that in some way offers more information than the one by Jesper Sampaio. And so, I don't intend to. I merely want to offer a few instructions and my own opinion.

Instruction number one: don't take it at face value. Many of the explanations Fort offers for any number of unexplained phenomena are intentionally fantastic, sarcastic or ironic. It is, I think, part of his overall effort to get people to question the "conventional" explanation. Many scientific explanations, after all, simply fit the facts available and, in that respect, are no more or less valid than some of Fort's.

Instruction number two: get ready for rather turgid prose. I personally like the way Fort writes, but it can be tough to get through for the uninitiated. Remember that he was writing in the early part of the century.

Instruction number three: don't be afraid to jump around. I know it's best to read these books "back to back" as it were, but it's not necessary. If you get tired of a particular avenue of discussion just jump ahead. Skip to a different book if you want. Part of my enjoyment of these books was being able to pick the volume up whenever the mood struck me and simply open to any chapter. Sure you miss some of the overarching themes, but it makes it much easier to enjoy.

So, for what it's worth, here's my opinion:

This is a really great primer for Forteana and unexplained phenomena. It is also a sharp and witty condemnation of blind trust in ANY particular system of belief and of the scientific view in particular. The scientific view receives particular condemnation, I think, because of the tendency of those within the scientific community to speak in absolutes. Science, says Fort, has a nasty habit of drawing lines in the sand and saying "this is the way things are" and condemning anyone who says different. The Earth is the center of the universe and rocks don't fall from the sky. Eventually the line gets redrawn, but Fort suggests that perhaps scientists should have just as healthy a sense of skepticism about their own fields of study as they do about the more fantastic things they habitually reject.

Enjoyable by believers and skeptics alike, the Complete Works of Charles Fort is both entertaining and thought provoking.

Reading is one of the things you should do for yourself........2000-04-05

It is not infrequent to hear establishment scientists label unconventional research work as 'pseudo-science', especially if the researcher in question lacks special academic credentials or institutional support and if his discoveries and conclusions go against current dogmas. But when someone's heresy goes beyond all institutional seriousness and loses its last grain of prim, scientific respectability, then even stronger expressions, such as the term "Fortean", will have to be flung at the anathematized one.

But who was this man called Fort whom every good scientist must abjure in a solemn oath? Well, historically speaking, Fort was (I suppose) the first writer to give systematical attention to a great number of phenomena generally termed 'anomalous' (in the areas of ufology, cryptozoology, parapsychology and many others) and has been a source of inspiration for several writers and - it must be admitted - some crackpot researchers. But is that all? No, definitely not, but in the case of Fort other people's opinions (including my own) will be of almost no avail to the uninitiated, so there is only one answer to the question above: Read Fort's books, and form your own opinion about the man and his work.

That's what I did myself: I got the Dover omnibus volume of his complete works to pollute my innocent mind with, and - ensconced in an old and spacey rocking chair - read every line of it. Now Fort is difficult reading: his style is full of surprises, allusions to subjects touched upon hundreds of pages back, preciously ironical remarks, creative metaphors and analogies (mostly incomplete or faulty, but nevertheless very funny), and - of course - a lot of philosophy: his weak side, if it be permitted to say so. Each book was meant to be read from first to last page, no skipping, because the facts exposed, though apparently whimsical and haphazard, really follow a careful order of presentation.

Fort's works are valuable for the extremely hard-gathered information they present (you can decide for yourself what to do with it) and for the way universally accepted ideas and concepts are challenged and played with for the sake of intellectual amusement (can't scientists see that? haven't they got the slightest bit of sense of humor? in his last book, however, Fort takes on a bit more of the grave air of the parapsychologist, and so comes close to resembling a 'true scientist'). Fort is someone you have a great time reading no matter how much you disagree with him, and that's not a small accomplishment, I think.

Actually, one may say that the act of listening does not imply being in agreement or disagreement with the speaker. And so there should be no hard-felt need for the reader to accept or oppose Fort's views as such. These are inalienable from the man and his unique writing style, and so may be comfortably left where they are. Below are a few typically 'Fortean' quotes, extracted from the omnibus volume reviewed:

- "Sciences are islands of seeming stability in a cosmic jelly."(p.335) - "All knowledge is (or implies) the degradation of something. One who learns of metabolism, looks at a Venus, and realizes she's partly rotten. However, she smiles at him, and he renews his ignorance. All things in the sky are pure to those who have no telescopes."(p.547) - "To have an opinion one must overlook something."(p.559) - "There would not be so much science, if people had good memories."(p.576) - "So, like everybody else, I don't know what to think, but, rather uncommonly, I know that."(p.617) - "Now and then admirers of my good works write to me, and try to convert me into believing things that I say. He would have to be an eloquent admirer, who could persuade me into thinking that our present expression is not a least a little fanciful; but just the same I have labored to support it. I labor like workers in a beehive, to support a lot of vagabond notions."(p.641) - "If there has never been, finally, a natural explanation of anything, everything is, naturally enough, the supernatural."(p.655) - "Every scientist who has played a part in any developing science has, as can be shown, if he's been dead long enough, by comparing his views with more modern views, deceived himself."(p.669) - "In the oneness of allness, I am, in some degree or aspect, guilty of, or infected with, or suffering from, everything that I attack."(p.828) - "To this day it has not been decided whether I am a humorist or a scientist."(p.850)

Average customer rating:

Very basic; disappointing

An Eye-Opening Look at a Subject Often Taken for Granted

The Type of Book That Everyone Should Read

well written, thought provoking

More Damned Lies and Statistics: How Numbers Confuse Public Issues
Joel Best
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers from the Media, Politicians, and Activists

How to Lie With Statistics

A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper

How to Lie With Charts

Cartoon Guide to Statistics

ASIN: 0520238303

Book Description

In this sequel to the acclaimed Damned Lies and Statistics, which the Boston Globe said "deserves a place next to the dictionary on every school, media, and home-office desk," Joel Best continues his straightforward, lively, and humorous account of how statistics are produced, used, and misused by everyone from researchers to journalists. Underlining the importance of critical thinking in all matters numerical, Best illustrates his points with examples of good and bad statistics about such contemporary concerns as school shootings, fatal hospital errors, bullying, teen suicides, deaths at the World Trade Center, college ratings, the risks of divorce, racial profiling, and fatalities caused by falling coconuts. More Damned Lies and Statistics encourages all of us to think in a more sophisticated and skeptical manner about how statistics are used to promote causes, create fear, and advance particular points of view.
Best identifies different sorts of numbers that shape how we think about public issues: missing numbers are relevant but overlooked; confusing numbers bewilder when they should inform; scary numbers play to our fears about the present and the future; authoritative numbers demand respect they don't deserve; magical numbers promise unrealistic, simple solutions to complex problems; and contentious numbers become the focus of data duels and stat wars. The author's use of pertinent, socially important examples documents the life-altering consequences of understanding or misunderstanding statistical information. He demystifies statistical measures by explaining in straightforward prose how decisions are made about what to count and what not to count, what assumptions get made, and which figures are brought to our attention.
Best identifies different sorts of numbers that shape how we think about public issues. Entertaining, enlightening, and very timely, this book offers a basis for critical thinking about the numbers we encounter and a reminder that when it comes to the news, people count--in more ways than one.

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Customer Reviews:

Very basic; disappointing.......2006-09-10

Based on the reviews on the cover of this book, and the reviews of others, I bought it expecting something new and original. Boy was I disappointed. Indeed, in the preface the author owns up: "I should confess that, in writing this book, I have done little original research. I have borrowed most of my examples from works by other analysts, mostly social scientists and journalists." Boy howdy, did he ever "borrow" them. So don't look here for anything new. I suspect this was just a quickly dashed together "sequel" to his first book, which I haven't read. So my advice is to skip this one.

An Eye-Opening Look at a Subject Often Taken for Granted.......2005-11-23

I didn't read the first Damned Lies, but the author says that he is making the same points but organizing the information differently for this follow-up. This is one of those books that has the potential to radically alter how we look at numbers. Best shows the reader how a data set can be manipulated to give a desired result.

Best is careful not to single out one side of the political spectrum when making his points. Says the author: "I don't believe that any particular group, faction, or ideology holds a monopoly on poor statistical reasoning." Rather than wallowing in this often-debated territory, the author turns to spheres of academia and the sciences, where radical-sounding results lead to more and more publications and grant dollars. This is a world not seen by most pundits and commentators.

When the issue of school shootings was sensationalized during the late 1990s and early 2000s, accounts in the popular media left out statistics that showed school crime had actually fallen over the past decade. The author calls this omission "missing numbers." Given what looked like a spike in shootings from around 1997 to 2001, few would believe, without seeing those numbers, that there was a clear, growing problem in our schools.

In his chapter, "Confusing Numbers," Best shows how figures can be reported, sometimes in a disingenuous manner, to make them sound better than they are. A good example of this is cited when the author turns to the Bush tax cuts of 2001. The administration claimed that their package would reduce the average family's taxes by over $1,000. Opponents shot back that half of all families would see less $100 of relief. Clearly, this is a case in which averaging wildly lopsided numbers doesn't tell the whole story.

The subject here isn't an exciting one, but given the author's ability to use highly relevant examples and his penchant for fair-mindedness, I was able to work through most of this one. Recommended for those interested in research, public policy, or statistics.

The Type of Book That Everyone Should Read.......2005-07-08

It's always refreshing to read a book in which the author strips away the wrapping around statistical figures to expose what those figures really could mean and how to question their credibility. In this book, as in its predecessor (Damned Lies and Statistics, 2001), the author warns against believing as facts the statistical figures that are always presented to us from various sources - both authoritative and otherwise. The solution is to be critical and to ask questions such as: Who produced those numbers? Exactly what was counted? What are those numbers really saying? Is there a way to present the information in a clearer more objective way? At the end, the author strongly argues in favor of the development of some system in society that would impart, what he calls, statistical literacy in the population at large. The book is clear and well written; it should be widely read.

well written, thought provoking.......2005-06-30

Few "informational" books read as well as this one. The author disects commonally accepted data and shows how misleading statistics can be. It was an easy read and still the gray matter was stimulated and I put it down smarter than when I had picked it up. This would be a book journalists, kinesiologists, or sociologists would find useful to accompany their already inquisitive mind. I had heard the author on the radio and decided to pick up this book. I was pleased with the purchase and experience.

Average customer rating:

When Hell freezes over
Ghetto Talk
Always entertaining, never disappointing
Thinks are Really heating up in this series
LOVING THIS SERIES!!!

The Damned (Vampire Huntress Legends)
L. A. Banks
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0312336241
Release Date: 2006-01-24

Book Description

Lilith, the consort of the Un-Named One, has released the Damned (the lost and torutured souls) from each level of Hell, onto earth. One touch from these deadly creatures infects a human, driving them to madness, death....and worse. This time, Damali, Carlos, and the Guardians cannot effectively close ranks. The infection has spread to key team members and threatens to wipe out the entire squad. Even The Covenant has been infected. The only antidote is to behead Lilith. But first, they must find her before members of the Neteru-Guardian team are lost.

Customer Reviews:

When Hell freezes over.......2007-02-09

Prologue: The two Neterus have come full circle. Damali's destiny has been magnified, Carlos has reached his acme, and they have married. For seven days, Eve's son Cain has been agonizing over the haunting scent of the ripening Neteru and grieving her marriage. His throne in the Land of Nod is decimated, he is teetering on the brink of insanity, and his rage has no bound.

Cain crosses the ice slicked bridge, in the seventh level of Hell leading to the Vampire Council Chambers; he has come to claim his throne. He is immediately enraged as he reads the last name etched on the black marble back: 'Carlos Rivera'. Once the throne is re-captured, Cain wants to sire, and is hell bent on claiming Damali. Lilith, consort to the Un-Named One, finally has a male Neteru on the Chairman's throne and ever the treacherous vixen, has made herself his ally.

Issues: Before Carlos and Damali wed, Damali welcomed a 'throat nick,' laced with seduction from Cain, now there is a DNA connection between the three and the marriage could be annulled. For maybe the first time in his life, Carlos is sobered. Payback is a mother! But there's no time for personal recriminations, the team must be readied for the war of wars, one that will include one of their fiercest nemeses. When Cain descended to the bowels of hell, Eve's spirit went cold, all reproduction ceased, but not before Damali was caught in an abyss. The Queens have orders from on high to back away from Damali until they know she has not compromised the Gates of Heaven. Carlos is a marked man and must extend beyond everything he has learned. Cain wages war, the team is fatally wounded and key guardians are fluxing.

Without warning THE WICKED captures the imagination as Banks takes readers from Nod, to the Vampire Chambers, to topside, to the Council of the Kings and Queens in one cataclysmic swoop. Banks shows no mercy on the mental faculties of the characters or readers. Before either can catch their collective breaths, they are in demon battles with no time for strategy. Adjectives to encompass how THE WICKED imprisoned me are diminishing as this series grows to `battle bulk' proportions.

Reviewed by aNN
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Ghetto Talk.......2007-01-24

Maybe I am too old for this book, granted, I didn't read the first in the series, and apparently, this is one of those series where you need to read them in consecutive order, but I can't get past page 30. I must be too old, I need a dictionary to understand all the ghetto talk, I spend more time translating the ghetto talk to older person talk to really get into the book. I guess I am not the 20-something that this series is aimed at. I am wondering if it was written in modern English if I could read more of it, even if I haven't read the previous installments in the series.

Always entertaining, never disappointing.......2007-01-18

In this next saga of the Vampire Huntress series, Damali, Carlos and her Guardian team are again, up against Lilith and the Chairman. Their mission is to retrieve the Book of the Damned and behead the Chairman. All the other reviews have described the plot to this book, so I will only say L.A. Bank's books are always captivating. I cannot say enough good things about her writing. I find her books mesmerizing. After every book in her series, when I have finished each book, I am always left with a wondeful feeling of awe. If you haven't read this series, you are truly missing out. The reason I gave this book four instead of five stars, was this book didn't seem to have as much action as the others. A lot of time was spent on the internal struggles within the Guardian team. I have the Forsaken yet to read and will be buying her next book, The Wicked. Read this series, you won't be sorry.

Thinks are Really heating up in this series.......2006-07-06

In "The damned" things really heat up for Damali and her Guardian team. Hell Goes on the offensive in this one and nothing will be the same when its over. This is a must read if you into the Vampire Huntress Series or love a good thriller.
Enjoy and STAY IN THE LIGHT!!!

LOVING THIS SERIES!!!.......2006-04-10

Chaos abounds in the latest in the fabulous L.A. Banks vampire huntress series. The portals of hell have been opened...and the result are demons walking Earth, resulting in murderous behavior of the most heinous kind. The Damned, released by Lilith, are spreading their infection simply by touch. Even the Guardians are affected, albeit to a lesser degree; the "thrill is gone" from Damali and Carlos's relationship, and the tension rises when Damali finds herself thinking of Jose in the physical sense, and there is serious distrust throughout the Guardian team...especially between the Neterus. In order to stop the pandemic, the Guardians must find and behead both Lilith and the Chairman...and Carlos must retrieve the Book of the Damned and return it to the Light....before souls everywhere, including Guardian souls, are lost forever.
Never one to disappoint, Banks has delivered another winner in her series....anxiously awaiting The Forsaken.

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