Paralysis Books

Whether or not you believe in reincarnation or spirit guides or even pre-birth planning, this book has something to teach you. The book helps us look at the negatives in our lives and turn those into positives - especially the negative people we encounter. Instead of harping on the negative lessons our parents (or anyone) gave us, we can thank them for being examples of how to and how not to be. It's a complete flip from the negative to the positive. I felt like a tremendous load had been lifted after I finished the book. Again, even if you don't believe in mediums, reincarnation, etc., you can still learn from this book. Give it a try.

If you have unanswered questions about why some of your relationships didn't work out, or why certain things seem to just "happen" to you, read this book! You will get a better understanding of how we chart our lives, prior to incarnation, in order to learn the lessons our soul needs to grow and perfect. Robert Schwartz does a wonderful job of researching!

The author is very humble in his approach to his subject. He, along with the reader, is in 'learning mode'. He takes a back seat to the real people and their real stories and is as awed by the information provided by psychics and channelers as we are. I will be using this book as a reference and will also be recommending it - highly - to others. For someone who has long believed in reincarnation and the healing it offers, I know what is important is the effect of what we believe. We accept that God exists but it is the extent of our faith which gives us strength and hope. Why scoff at the fact/concept of reincarnation, at the idea we've led many lives and even chosen the people, the events - beforehand - in them? A famous personage once opined that it is a miracle we've lived even one life. WE are not just 'one-hit wonders'; we have so many songs in our repertoire.
This book is so beautifully written and arriving at the last page was like leaving an old friend or ending a wondrous journey. I look forward to the next one and have emailed the author to share with him how much I loved his book. The heartbreaking stories, the insights and wisdom from the channelers allows us to feel a little bit more powerful, a little bit more knowledgeable and yes, even more humble to the greatness of our spiritual universe.

With my mother dying I had a lot of questions about the journey of souls. This book is packed with a lot of wonderful information and gave me a sense of calm and made me felt more accepting of situations and people in my life.

One of the most important books I have ever read. This book confirmed to me many things that I have always inherently felt to be true, but more than that, it has helped me see life and the people in it from a much more elevated perspective. I cannot stress how amazing it is. I am re-reading it once again. I hope the author writes another very soon.

"Coping with Physical Loss and Disability" by Rick Ritter, MSW, is a jarring book at 92 pages. When I first got it, I thought it would be a regular self-help book, and I admit I was skeptical. But I opened it and it turned out to be a workbook.

There are six sections of the book, going from what your original loss was to how you could ask for and get help for it. In fact, I really had to consider that particular question. "Describe your loss in detail" was another. That was one of those where I had to write my feelings, and like many with disabilities I've told the story so many times, I figured I'd gotten it to a science. It was a blah story with which I started out, therefore; one I'd told a million times.

Then, something happened inside of me. I got angry. I don't do that too much; usually I'm at most irritated and that's that. Life is irritating to me these days for various personal reasons, so that was what the answer was like till that particular switch in my head went off. All of a sudden, there was a real answer. I actually started yelling "What? You want to know about the stupid primary care physician who said one leg was shorter than the other, when it turned out I had a blood clot in it? You want to know about my parents? What...?"

In the end, the question tore something out of me that I hadn't expected at all.

If you read this book, be prepared to do it slowly. At the end, you'll find a section of resources that is very intense. The author even stuck in movies that deal with disability! The book itself will take you to places inside that you didn't know existed, like that bit of anger -- believe me, I had more than one of those. I cried, I threw things, I felt sorry for myself, I sat for long periods of time thinking hard about questions my mind refused to answer but that on the other hand it wanted to. That test of my own will-power hurt a lot sometimes. But believe me when I say, it's very much worth it.

"Coping with Physical Loss and Disability: A Workbook" - Rick Ritter, MSW; LovingHealing Press 2006.

As we prepared for our oldest daughter's amputaion, I searched for something to help guide us along as a family. This work book is wonderful. Although my daughter was emotionally ready for her loss, Rick Ritter was able to better address some of what we may have missed prior to her surgery. I strongly recomend this book for anyone dealing with physical loss them selves or that of a loved one. Joi Warburton, Las Vegas, NV

After reading the other reviews I purchased this book. I have a degenerative muscle disease for which there is no treatment. Although I have coped fairly well up to this point, I was finding myself more and more isolated. As I answered the questions, I felt it would be better if I were going through this process with a professional. I answered as fully as I was able, but there doesn't seem to be any suggestions as to what to do with this information. The book suggests that you share your answers with three people. In my case that wasn't possible.I can see that it would be useful in conjunction with therapy. Without that professional input, the book left me hanging.

Rick Ritter has written a superb self-help workbook that will benefit readers who have suffered a physical loss or disability. Ritter has included 50 questions to be answered by the reader. He recommends these answers be shared with at least three other people. In responding to these questions, the reader is able to reflect on his or her disability or physical loss. The book engages the reader in discovering ways to deal with their physical loss. To those readers who have experienced such a loss, the workbook will provide a sense of empowerment to those still in grief or depression.

Ritter himself has experienced his own disability. As a social worker(MSW), he has had the opportunity to work with 100 people who have suffered a physical loss or disability. His workbook provides a roadmap for readers to follow to reach attainable goals.

Also included are interesting short stories of people he has worked with ranging from amputation, breast cancer, muscular dystrophy, AIDS, Multiple Sclerosis, and quadriplegia. He recounts how these people were able to cope with their loss.

Having a disability or having suffered a physical loss doesn't necessarily lead to unhappiness. How one responds to that loss is what really matters. Rick also uses spirituality, support systems, and holistic methods as an approach to coping with the loss. Resiliency is crucial in facing any loss or disability.

As a mother of a son with cerebral palsy, I can see how this workbook could be very useful. He is now a happy young man working as an attorney. His disability didn't stop him from being productive. Also, having battled my own muscle disease along with rheumatoid arthritis, I found it helpful. As the daughter of a mother transfused with HIV contaminated blood, I can see how this workbook could have benefited her.

The resources included at the end of his book are certainly a bonus. He has listed helpful organizations, suggested reading, and films relating to physical loss and disability.

Rick Ritter has given his readers a wonderful gift. "Coping with Physical Loss and Disability" is an empowering book that will benefit many readers. I highly recommend this workbook. Thank you, Rick for caring. Your workbook will be appreciated by many people.

Nancy A. Draper (Author) A Burden of Silence: My Mother's Battle with AIDS

Reviewed by Christina Gonzalez, LMHC for Reader Views (5/06)

The author starts this very unique workbook with a compelling quote from Christopher Reeve, "So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable". This book is a way to help those who have found their dreams become impossible, find new ways to restructure their life, their ways of thinking and their ways of being in order to find ways to help their dreams become inevitable.

This book is oriented towards those who have experienced some type of a physical loss, whether from a disability, accident or including serious, chronic illnesses and pain. His examples range from people who have suffered knee injuries to quadriplegics, to individuals who have undergone a mastectomy from breast cancer to debilitating illnesses like muscular dystrophy. I would see value for individuals with ANY chronic health condition benefiting enormously from this book.

The author suggests that individuals who use this book consult with at least three people in their lives with whom they can share the results of the exercises which is very wise. The author takes the reader through a series of written exercises and anecdotes through six main chapters: Past and Future, Self Care and Support, Dealing with Loss: Feelings and Beliefs, Understanding Disability, Transforming Circumstance, and The Ongoing Process of Loss and Recovery. Each of these remain only questions and words on paper until the reader takes these questions and looks into their lives and then shares them with another.

As a therapist I will be recommending this book to my clients who are struggling with any chronic health issues. I would love to use this workbook with my clients in their therapy as well as suggest they share the information obtained about themselves with others in their lives. The author includes some excellent exercises to help the reader determine what people in their lives might be supportive to this process of recovery from physical loss and/or any chronic health condition.

The appendices include some excellent resources regarding therapeutic techniques and alternatives, suggested reading for coping with loss and disability, films on issues related to physical loss and disability, guidelines for watching films, and a listing of organizations and other resources that can help individuals coping with loss and disability.

As the mother of a child with Cerebral Palsy and as a psychotherapist myself, I found this book to be highly valuable for people dealing with any type of physical loss. As I mentioned above, just buying the book will not do anything. Filling out the exercises will help, but will not make a huge change. Filling out the exercise, following the author on the journey that he is leading the reader on and sharing with those close to the reader will make a great deal of difference. Some of the exercises I found helpful for those suffering from debilitating mental or emotional illnesses and even less acute health conditions such as asthma or others. This book is highly recommended to any individual who has suffered a physical loss and is still struggling to find their dreams. It would make a great gift from a supportive loved one who is also willing to make a stand to be there with the reader as they go through these exercises, and it would make an excellent aid to an individual who is currently seeing a therapist. I would not recommend this to someone who just wants to do the exercises randomly, haphazardly or in order to just keep their answers to themselves and not share them with another.

Valuable insights into the world of the disabled from many angles by a respected professor with progressive spinal cord disease. Highly recommended to persons with disabilities and to the general public who often encounter them.

As a graduate student in anthropology, I came to know and respect Bob Murphy more than any other scholar. Of the texts he wrote, The Body Silent, stands apart in that it says much about the man, anthropology, disability in American society, and life itself. It will deeply touch a wide variety of readers, and for those that knew him, will bring tears to their eyes. As to its impact on what is now known as disability studies, it put the discipline on the academic agenda. As such, it is a seminal text and is a must for anyone thinking of entering the field.

This is one of my books that I bought and put aside to read later. I don't remember how long ago I bought it but I am certainly glad that I gave it a second chance to read it before discarding it. I am now not planning to sell this book, as it is too important a volume on disability in society, and it certainly applies to the bioethical and eduethical work I do on the side of my 'regular' job of teaching and writing.

Murphy is unlike me in that he came upon his disability later in life, while I was born basically deaf and remained that way for the first 13 years of my life before getting a hearing aid at the age of 13. Murphy had to deal with a slow-growing tumor that entwined itself into his spinal cord. Unlike many tumors that can be excised with surgery, his was such that the possibility of removing it also came with the possibility of losing everything else, including his life or the ability to continue to do his important work. Like many of us who have chosen not to take the risk of surgery and who don't believe that to be disabled is worse than to be dead, Murphy worked with and around his progressive disabling and was able to give the world another 15 years of his wisdom in cultural anthropology.

This book is a must-read for any person with a disability, no matter when they became disabled. Murphy had the background of an academic anthropologist, with many years of successful teaching and writing for major journals in anthropology and culture. He had also written major books, one of which continues to be used in most universities on women and gender in primitive societies. So in coming into the genre of disability studies, he brought to the field a first-rate mind and ability to write so others can understand difficult concepts.

Murphy's book is not the usual autobiography that one usually expects, but rather explores disability (specifically his, but he introduces others and also the culture) without a single shard of either self-pity or 'hey, look at me' attitude that is so often written about in media (where the media puts someone with a disability on a pedestal that is unrealistic of the very real problems that those of us with disabilities face daily). He writes presenting his disablement as a fait-accompli, dealing with the problems as they arose...and in some cases, he ignored his health situation to the point of putting him at risk for infection from bedsores because he was too busy teaching. Like Murphy states, that wasn't courage as often as it was just not wanting to take the time to have his physical body get in the way of what he was trying to do. In treating his disablement with this attitude, he did become the courageous person that he presented to the public...and I wish so badly I had had the opportunity to meet him and hear him speak. Like so many others such as Michael Fox and Christopher REeve, Murphy was a non-disabled person whose close encounters with his own disablement led him to become a voice in a minority that has long been voiceless. He died much too soon, but in giving his last fifteen years of work to physical disabilities in society, he has provided us with an ongoing voice. I certainly intend to use his words and his writing in my work in hopes that it will inspire others as it has inspired me.

Karen Sadler

Bob became paraplegiac at a late age, after having enjoyed a long, brilliant career as a professor at Columbia and an anthropologist who, with his anthropologist wife Yolanda, lived among Amazonian Indians and Saharan camel nomads. He was too clever to be overwhelmed with self-pity. This book was written from the perspective that he loved most: what you'd think is true is probably just the opposite. We expect paralyzed people to get better, like other "sick" patients, but the problem is, they don't: they're damaged selves. Hey--just like everybody else. We all have to come to terms with life's damages and our isolation and loneliness as we attempt to cope with it. Who would ever have thought it possible--we can all learn something compelling about our normal selves, viewing life from the wheelchair! Ironically (and this is the kind of twist that styles Murphy's ideas) the disabled are a mirror for the rest of us: "The paralytic is, quite literally, a prisoner of the flesh, but most humans are convicts of sorts. We live within walls of our own making, staring out at life through bars thrown up by culture and annealed by our fears. . . .[that] induces a mental paralysis, a stilling of thought." Murphy has never sold his soul to an illusion: he speaks candidly as a participant observer of his own encounter with symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and transformation. Always the fox, he transcends the smoke screen that our cultural prejudices force upon us, and hears his own body and its message with astounding clarity and patience. This is a book that students read eagerly, in both anthropology and sociology classes, because its message is provocative, and its ethnography is true. It teaches us all to listen to the sound of our own struggles with personal identity and mortality, and to smile with the knowledge that we are not alone.

Ten years ago since the American Disabilities Act went into effect, the disabled still feel that they are isolated from the real world. Former professor of anthropology at Columbia University Robert F. Murphy examines from his personal perspective the life of a disabled person in a world where he was independent and zealous of life. The reader will discover what it is like for a disabled person to battle besides the inability to carry out everyday function we take for granted. The Body Silent is unlike other books written by the disable. The Body Silent is an excellent book full of prose and not journal entries of how fortunate the non-disabled really are. This book (recommended to me by anthropologist Dr. James Trostle) will change your perspective and outlook on how it is like to grow up again and learning how to walk, one step at a time.

The Mom's Choice Awards® honors excellence in family-friendly media, products and services. An esteemed panel of judges includes education, media and other experts as well as parents, children, librarians, performing artists, producers, medical and business professionals, authors, scientists and others. A sampling of the panel members includes: Dr. Twila C. Liggett, Ten-time Emmy-winner, professor and founder of Reading Rainbow; Julie Aigner-Clark, Creator of Baby Einstein and The Safe Side Project; Jodee Blanco, New York Times Best-Selling Author; LeAnn Thieman, Motivational speaker and coauthor of seven Chicken Soup For The Soul books; Florrie Binford-Kichler, Founder of Patria Press, Inc.- an award-winning independent publisher and Member of The Children's Book Council; Tara Paterson, Certified Parent Coach, and founder of The Just For Mom Foundation(tm) and the Mom's Choice Awards®. Parents and educators look for the Mom's Choice Awards® seal in selecting quality materials and products for children and families. This book has been honored by this distinguished award.

I love reading this book to my nieces and nephews it teaches great principles and also having all the fun of the Dewey character. What an amazing book and story!!!

My son loves this series. He has 4 book in the series. He loves to listen to them in the car. The books are great because they carry a good message with them. I would highly recommend these books! This one is by far his favorite. I don't know if that is because it was his first one or not, but he seems to like this one best. Very Cute book!

I am constantly looking for good books for my three young boys. It isn't too difficult to find children's books that are entertaining, but if you're looking for anything beyond that to educate or even inspire your kids, most books fall flat. However, I was totally blown away by "Dewey Doo-it Helps Owlie Fly Again". This book has it all: entertaining characters, beautiful illustrations, an inspirational story, and even a *Bonus Music CD* with some great music. Oh, and to top it all off, a portion of the book's profits go to the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation. I highly recommend that you get this book for your kids! My boys love it!

We received this book as a gift. I was concerned that it would be too advanced for my 2 year old son, however, from the first time we read it he was engrossed. It teaches him wonderful values using lovable characters that he can relate to - a superb teaching tool!

For those of us born after the 1950s, we cannot imagine the terror that gripped families every summer as polio swept through their communities, killing and crippling hundreds and thousands of people, particularly children. For six-year-old Janice Flood, polio became an integral part of her family history. In 1953, her twin brother Frankie died of polio, and Jan was left temporarily crippled by the disease. Although she was fortunate to regain full movement after intensive therapy, she nearly lost her son during his birth due to her physical deformities brought on by polio, and Janice suffers today from many symptoms of post-polio syndrome. Worst of all, though, she will always mourn the loss of a twin brother who never reached his full potential. From the age of six, she would always be a "twinless twin."

Thanks to the development of the Salk and Sabin vaccines, polio was nearly eradicated in most industrialized countries, but the disease continues to cripple and kill people in many third world countries where vaccines are scarce. Having experienced firsthand the devastation that can be inflicted by polio, Janice Flood Nichols knew she had to tell her story and push for further efforts to vaccinate all of the world's children. With that in mind, she wrote the moving book, "Twin Voices: A Memoir of Polio, the Forgotten Killer."

Written through several "voices," including that of Janice, family members and friends, the doctor who cared for Janice and Frankie when they had polio, and even Frankie himself, "Twin Voices" is a fascinating read about the polio epidemic that swept the country, the frantic efforts to put a halt to its devastation, and the tragedy that befell the Flood family. This book brings home the fact that Frankie was a real little boy filled with a passion for life and all the joys that children experience. His family was, at first, shell-shocked following his death, but his twin sister Janice ultimately grew to find purpose in his passing through her work as a rehabilitation counselor for the physically disabled and her continued efforts to make sure that polio does not tragically alter the lives of more families like hers. It is also a haunting look at the "twin bond" that continues to connect Janice and her brother many years after their separation.

I knew very little about the polio outbreak in the 1950s but as a child I do remember being quarantined and not allowed to be with other children. After reading Janet's book I am so much more aware, not only about what was happening at that time, but what is happening now. I had no idea polio still exists.

Janet not only lived through polio devastating her immediate family, but she has researched it thoroughly. "Twin Voices" is a story of Janet's life and experience; it is also book that gives the reader valuable insights. Her writing style is enticing to keep reading, her story is poignant, and her research impeccable.

This a book not to be missed reading.

For those of us born after the 1950s, we cannot imagine the terror that gripped families every summer as polio swept through their communities, killing and crippling hundreds and thousands of people, particularly children. For six-year-old Janice Flood, polio became an integral part of her family history. In 1953, her twin brother Frankie died of polio, and Jan was left temporarily crippled by the disease. Although she was fortunate to regain full movement after intensive therapy, she nearly lost her son during his birth due to her physical deformities brought on by polio, and Janice suffers today from many symptoms of post-polio syndrome. Worst of all, though, she will always mourn the loss of a twin brother who never reached his full potential. From the age of six, she would always be a "twinless twin."

Thanks to the development of the Salk and Sabin vaccines, polio was nearly eradicated in most industrialized countries, but the disease continues to cripple and kill people in many third world countries where vaccines are scarce. Having experienced firsthand the devastation that can be inflicted by polio, Janice Flood Nichols knew she had to tell her story and push for further efforts to vaccinate all of the world's children.

Written through several "voices," including that of Janice, family members and friends, the doctor who cared for Janice and Frankie when they had polio, and even Frankie himself, "Twin Voices" is a fascinating read about the polio epidemic that swept the country, the frantic efforts to put a halt to its devastation, and the tragedy that befell the Flood family. This book brings home the fact that Frankie was a real little boy filled with a passion for life and all the joys that children experience. His family was, at first, shell-shocked following his death, but his twin sister Janice ultimately grew to find purpose in his passing through her work as a rehabilitation counselor for the physically disabled and her continued efforts to make sure that polio does not tragically alter the lives of more families like hers. It is also a haunting look at the "twin bond" that continues to connect Janice and her brother many years after their separation.

The book was recommended to me by a mutual friend of the author. Her information is extensive and enlightening to a polio survivor (my husband). I didn't care for the format, where she used the "voice" of her deceased twin to tell his story from heaven. It was too cute, especially because he wouldn't be that articulate at his young age.

Reviewed by April Sullivan for Reader Views (1/08)

"Twin Voices" is a memoir by Janice Flood Nichols about a specific life-changing event. In the fall of 1953, at the age of six, she lost her twin brother to polio. Janice contracted polio as well. She survived and overcame temporary paralysis. She went on to become a rehabilitation counselor. While her experiences as a youth shaped her adult life, she never thought that fifty years later she would be writing about the experience.

Most people alive today have some memory of, or have at least heard of polio. Yet, to the surprise of everyone who has not kept up with polio research, including Janice Flood Nichols, polio is still an epidemic in Third World Countries. Although vaccines are available and worldwide eradication is possible, funding and education are needed to make this a reality. Knowing first-hand the devastation of polio, Janice was compelled to tell her story in an effort to educate and do her part to eradicate this deadly disease.

"Twin Voices" is structured in a unique way. Janice invited professionals, friends, and family members to lend their voices to the story. Each chapter is by one of many characters, including those who are no longer alive, such as her twin Frankie and her parents. Other characters include the doctor who signed Frankie's death certificate, childhood friends, aunts, and cousins. Not only do the voices tell the personal side of the story, they also tell the history and facts about polio. The combination forms a nicely balanced book.

I applaud Janice for writing this book. It was obviously not easy. But she was able to bring a perspective to the subject that not many people can. Janice knows polio as both a victim and a survivor. When Frankie died, a part of Janice died. Yet, on the other hand, when Janice survived, a part of Frankie survived, and this book is tangible evidence of that. "Twin Voices" is about so much more than polio. It is about the unique quality of twindom that Janice writes about so eloquently. Being a twin myself, that is the part about this book that intrigued me. Being educated about polio was an added bonus.

I recommend "Twin Voices" to anyone who wants to read a well-researched book and touching personal look at the polio epidemic.

Excellent facts and representation of experience - since I personally experienced this disorder, and recovered 99%, I am confident in my assessment of book's content. It's good that the information is out there - so few people are even aware of the nature of this disorder!

Gillian-Barre Syndrome is a rare disease, so acurate, up to date resource materials about this are sore lacking. This book helps to fill the void.
Because this disease is rare, there is not a lot of research, and most doctors only rarely encounter a case in their medical career. Medical schools are still teaching out-dated information. Therefore, it is up to the patient and caregiver to stay informed. GBS patients should buy a copy for themselves, and one for their doctor.

Until I was told I had GBS (Nov 2007), I had never heard of it. Once I read this book cover to cover, I gained an understanding of GBS, which I had been looking for and was unable to find in others. I felt as if someone had been following me around, writing down everything that happened the weeks before and the first two weeks I was in the hospital.

This book should be required reading for all PCP and ICU nurses that are caring for GBS patients. I believe it would give them the compassion they need along with the knowledge, as to what to do for their patients and how to handle situations with their GBS patients that may/will come up.

I have to thank those involved in writing this book, for giving me the information which I had been looking for, in layman terms and was unable to find. And for giving me the ability to look forward, for now I know, it will get better in time, given time.

I know that there is still much I must overcome to gain as much of a recovery as I can, however now I have the tools to make it through.

Guillain-Barre Syndrome is a condition in which the body's immune system attacks part of the nervous system, resulting in symptoms ranging from tingling and weakness to paralysis. GUILLAIN-BARRE SYNDROME: FROM DIAGNOSIS TO RECOVERY is co-authored by a survivor of the condition and covers everything from early symptoms and treatment options to diagnostic methods and prognosis. From rehabilitation to acute care and coming home again, GUILLAIN-BARRE SYNDROME is a 'must' for any serious health library.

I am a patient suffering in Guillanin Barre Syndrome and still have recovery.
This book gives me many aspects of the disease and recommends how to use my own life after GBS.

As a English Literature major I am always looking for something different, something that truly pushes the language. David Fernandez is to be commended for taking literature to an new and interesting level.

Yes, at first it may be difficult for the eyes to get accustomed to the omition of puncuation, but eventually everything is forgotten and you are in the midst of a bold, creative endeavor. I'm not quite sure that the new form adds to the story (perhaps I need a second reading) but it adds an attraction. Finally, a fiction that is not concentrating on breaking plot cliches, but rather breaking overhyped-grammatical stereotypes.

This book is compelling not simply because of the plot, the setting, or its relevance to many Gen X'ers lives, but because of its profound psychological insights into human beings themselves. These characters are so HUMAN that it is impossible to have simple, one-dimensional feelings about them, and it is equally impossible not to identify with them at some level. Mr. Fernandez has eerily captured the essence of being human -- not with perfect and punctuated prose, but with a completely original form that forces readers to read and to think beyond themselves. An excellent, unusual book whose greatest achievement is to present the everyday in a way that is anything but ordinary.

The author successfully and cleverly alerts the reader of his/her own inaction and immobility. Throughout the book the reader can become anxious and search frantically on the following page for the resolution; the action that will alter the each pathetic situation forever. But it never happens, it's not suppose to.

You long for the couples life to improve. Either they should stay together in happiness, go their separate ways, or he should just kill her already, right? Something should happen. As the day proceeds in a round about way the reader learns that everyday life is not a melodrama where actions are taken and joyous reactions result. No. All of us absorb and live without realizing the minute things that irritate us or that launch us into a state of irrational daydreaming.

At first, you may not recognize nor sympathesize with any of the characters, but in the end it all makes perfect sense and you realize this is simply a day in the life.

In fiction, it is always refreshing to find a voice that both challenges the reader and weaves an interesting tale. David Alberto Fernandez has such a voice, and Alexstasia is a carefully crafted novel which reveals the simple power of the written word. The book breaks with grammatical conventions and tells the tale of the trials and tribulations of a twenty-something married couple living in South Florida. The novel is the troubling story of Hispanic Generation X'ers reaching for more; Anastasia Ordonez, a handicapped woman dealing the psychological effects of a car accident, and Alejandro Guzman, a man frustrated by lack of opportunities in his lfe and overwhelmed by the inactivity of his wife. As the tension builds on an eventful day, more of their lives are revealed, until the page-turning culmination of the story which unites these particular people living in a particular place with a greater human whole. A well-written book, Alexstasia isn't easy reading. The book is complex and open to layers of interpretation. And although the differences in punctualization and capitalization eventually become invisible, the mind-set of Anastasia is shown in uncompromising detail. Her despair in her inability to walk creates havoc in the couple's relationship and in the lives of all the characters. The unhappiness of two leads to something else; at first it seems like violence, but actually it is something more. If you are interested in psychological novels or fiction that defies simple definition, Alexstasia is highly recommended. by Alan Richman (lbooks@yahoo.com), Washington, DC

This book is an excellent book for anyone who uses a wheelchair. It has tons of medical information, how to choose the perfect wheelchair, and even stuff on building relationships. I highly recommend it to any wheeler, new or old!

I found this book helpful even though I am quite a few years into my spinal cord injury. I think this book should be given out to the newly disabled so that they can see how full their lives still are. I know mine is...

A very pragmatic approach to "life on wheels", provides an insider's viewpoint with large amount of facts, references and helpful hints. Great book.

Smith and Berg have wrouth - written is too modest - a briljant insighful and wise guide tour behind the coulises of our lifes. It is the best guide book I know to the place you live in: the group. You can use it in almost every situation. They show how we are caught in our webs, our own frames of mind, our relational swamp. Such is life and it is getting sucher and sucher all the time.
I recommend this book to every one dealing with groups AND individuals, because there is no better way to start to understand what life ' is'.

This insightful book has accompanied me through grad school, two corporate reorganizations and numerous consulting projects. The authors have written an excellent text on the contradictory forces/movements endemic to group life. Their use of paradoxical thought as a lens for thinking about and successfully navigating the territory of group life is both practical and innovative. If you're looking for the usual book about conflict resolution, please look elsewhere. Smith and Berg advocate reclaiming rather than repressing or eliminating the fears and anxieties that define many aspects of group life. Their explanation of concepts such as group paralysis, oscillation, group-as-whole, splitting and individual ambivalence are clear and highly cogent when integrated into a paradoxical framework.

Paradoxes of Group Life is a masterful explication of the concepts its title announces. This readable volume will serve the newcomer to Group Dynamics as well as the more experienced cognoscenti. People are often fundamentally ambivalent about ourselves and our participation in groups. Smith & Berg explain these (often unconscious) dynamics with great clarity and force. Treat yourself to this compelling analysis. I highly recommend their important work!

In a time when people are seeking answers to life's many challenges, Dr. Lynch presents a compelling answer, in the form of knowing the one and true God personally. Understanding who God is and experiencing him personally is a challenge worth pursuing. God offers many benefits to those who will accept him and his promise to do good toward us. Healing Paralysis offers a head start in the process of finding answers to the challenges that are present every day of our lives. Keeping it simple is the chief aim of this book and the course offered is relevant and practical. A must read for everyone looking for answers.

This book is an ideal reference tool. It enables a Muslim with questions about Christianity to go right to any of the listed questions and get biblical answers right from scripture.