Book Description
This book gives you vital instruction in metal basics from top guitar teachers, and reveals the secrets of the monsters of metal - often in their own words. Packed with musical examples, charts and photos, this is your complete course for learning metal guitar. In-depth lessons with pros like Andy Ellis, Jesse Gress, Joe Gore, Jude Gold and Dave Whitehill teach you to build your own style while exploring the classic and modern sounds of the metal masters. Covers: tips on altered tunings and 7-string guitar, pros' secrets of tone and recording, discography of the monsters of metal, and free access to audio lessons at an exclusive web page!
Book Description
Offers a behind-the-scenes look at the extraordinary vehicles of Monster Garage and the talented customizers who build them.
Before, during, and after photos of vehicles.
Candid photos and interviews with host Jesse James.
Profiles and photos of fascinating guests, designers, and customizers.
Auto-based “transformers” of past, present, and future.
Customer Reviews:
Unbelievable Car Transformations!.......2003-12-05
"Mea Culpa"- I have to confess, I never watched The Discovery Channel's television series, Monster Garage. Then again, for that matter, I have refrained these days from watching television altogether!
Monster Garage, as I have been informed by several television mavens, is one of the hottest realty shows, and after reading the fan book Inside Monster Garage,written by Ken Vose, I can fully understand why people are attracted to this fascinating series.
Relying on glossy and detailed photos combined with Vose's crafted words, this 175- page soft cover book show- cases how these unbelievable feats are accomplished.
It is as if readers are given a backstage pass where they can witness what goes on behind the scenes, listen to the interviews with some of the principal characters, and savor tidbits of trivia mentioned in the pleasurable sidebars. The trivia will surely come in handy at cocktail parties.
The book traces various episodes, wherein readers are privy to the workings of a group of skilled, imaginative and creative individuals, who nearly do the impossible by transforming an automobile into something outrageous.
Bear in mind that their budget is limited to three thousand dollars, and the time frame to accomplish the feat is five days.
Without doubt, readers who have seen the series, will vividly remember some of these mind boggling inventions such as: the school bus pontoon boat: the Lincoln Town Car Limousine turned into a fire truck: the Chevy Suburban transformed into a wedding chapel, where a couple actually performs their wedding ceremony: turning a Ford Mustang into the world's fastest lawnmower.
In addition, each episode lists the members of the crew, the specs, and comments made by their leader Jesse James pertaining to the objectives of the transformation, his final remarks, as well as some intriguing information concerning the vehicle or the project.
An example- I bet you did not know that in 1939 the official color for school buses was changed from Omaha orange to chrome yellow. How about this tidbit-the largest pipe organ in the world is located not in a cathedral in Europe, but in a department store in Philadelphia.
As an added bonus, the book includes interviews with some of the "movers and shakers" of the show.
One that is particularly interesting is with Jesse James, whom the book states "may well become the first blue-collar television hero who actually works with his hands for a living. He is not an actor, singer, or an entertainer. He's definitely not a talking head. He's a welder and a fabricator, one who makes awesome machines that look great, work the way they should, and go fast."
James comes off, as a down to earth guy who maintains all he wanted to do was to focus on people making something out of nothing. As he says, "people dig that."
Vose successfully achieves a delicate balance between the stunning images and his words that are so critical in creating this memorable, solid, and sumptuously illustrated book.
Inside Monster Garage is moreover a fun read, and to re-quote James, "people dig that." I am sure one day the book will even become a collector's item.
The above review first appeared on reviewer's own site:
Average customer rating:
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The Metal Monster
Manufacturer: Avon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000HYX5IS |
Book Description
Metallica is one of the most successful hard-rock bands of all time, having sold more than ninety million albums worldwide. Receiving unique, unfettered access, acclaimed filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky followed Metallica over two and a half years as they faced monumental personal and professional challenges that threatened to destroy the bands just as they returned to the studio to record their first album in four years. While the documentary itself provides an insider's view of Metallica, the two and a half years of production (and more than 1,600 hours of footage) garnered far more than can be expressed in a two-hour film.Berlinger's book about the experience reveals the stories behind the film, capturing the energy, uncertainty, and ultimate triumph of both the filming and Metallica's bid for survival. It weaves the on-screen stories together with what happened off-screen, offering intimate details of the band's struggle amidst personnel changes, addiction, and controversy. In part because Berlinger was one of the only witnesses to the intensive group-therapy sessions and numerous band meetings, his account of his experience filming the band is the most honest and deeply probing book about Metallica - or any rock band - ever written.This is the book both Metallica and film fans have dreamed of - a stark and honest look at one of rock's most important bands through the eyes of the most provocative documentary filmmakers working today.
Customer Reviews:
Too self-serving.......2007-01-02
The book let me down in a lot of ways. I guess it just wasn't what I had expected. I was hoping for an inside account of how Metallica wrote the lyrics and created the music in a collaborative effort inside their studios (which is the opposite of how they created their prior albums). Instead I got a book that was 50% of the author patting himself on the back of his previous projects and how Blair Witch 2 was a bomb. Honestly, I don't care. I wanted to hear stories about Metallica, not get a run down of your resume.
This marketing technique lives.......2005-05-07
I enjoyed the book where it was talking about Metallica but I have to agree with other folks comments about the writers going on and on about their past documentaries as if by telling us we might run right out and buy their other movies. To be honest I skipped everything they wrote about past exploits and only read about the band once I saw how they kept patting themselves on the back. I'm a fan of the band not of your past doc's. Anyway as said by others it does give a little more insight to the movie when you watch it. 3 stars for the whole book for the back patting session that is endured.
story tellers.......2005-04-27
the book completes the story told in the film. film is part 1 and the book is part 2 of some kind of monster.
**I saw megadeth live on april 3rd, 2005. obviously the story goes on.
This is a Great "Behind the Scenes" book.......2005-04-24
I loved the Metallica documentary "Some Kind of Monster", and after I read the book, I loved the film even more. The book to me fills in all the right gaps that the film couldn't present - for sake of time only. I love to know how things work and operate, so I loved reading how filmmakers decide on a piece of work, how it's filmed, and then how the footage gets made into a masterpiece. What insight. Great book - Highly recommended!
Too Touchy - Feely.......2005-03-28
This book, as it says on the cover, is the inside story of the hit film "Metallica: Some Kind of Monster". Q Prime, Metallica's management company, hired a "performance-enhancement coach" by the name of Phil Towle to conduct therapy sessions with the remaining members. The thing I find most annoying about it are the constant references to the past projects of the film maker. I expected a book that was about Metallica and instead got something that is full of self referencial drivel and soul searching from Joe. Perhaps it's my fault and my expectations were set incorrectly, but I found the book to be quite boring overall. Phil Towle, tries to get James & Lars to hug whenever they se
If I wanted to read a book about learning to trust someone, I would have picked up Dr. Phil's latest book.
Book Description
In the wilds of the Trans-Himalayan region, a quartet of adventurers led by Dr. Walter T. Goodwin stumbles upon a tribe of human primitives forgotten since the age of Alexander the Great, and an awesome being of living metal commanded by the exiled Norhala. As Norhala's guests, Goodwin and his team witness the mind-boggling marvels that are the Metal Monster's way of life, and the unspeakable horrors it commits when Norhala takes it to war against her persecutors.
A. Merritt's second published novel,
The Metal Monster was first serialized in a pulp fiction magazine in 1920. Its exotic setting and extravagant scientific speculations make it a landmark of lost-race fantasy fiction. Dissatisfied with its writing, Merritt kept his story from book publication until 1946, revising and reshaping it for more than twenty years. This edition reprints for he first time the tale as it was originally published, restoring close to 10,000 words of text Merritt cut from the original. This
definitive edition features cover artwork and a frontispiece by famed fantasy artist Virgil Finlay.
Customer Reviews:
A "must own" Lost Race novel for Weird Fiction fans.......2005-07-14
5.5" x 8.5" softcover book. 237 pages.
Of great important to readers of weird fiction is the first installment in Hippocampus Press' Lovecraft's Library series. Aimed at reprinting texts that H. P. Lovecraft read and admired, the inclusion of Abraham Merritt's The Metal Monster should come as a shock to no one.
Set in the Trans-Himalayan mountains, a group of four explorers uncover a lost-race, their power-crazed leader Norhala, and the metal homunculus Norhala controls. More akin to the writings of Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. Rider Haggard than to Lovecraft, Merritt's concept of writing a "nexus where scientific theory and occult mystery intersected" seems philosophically aligned with Lovecraft's own aesthetic of the weird. Readers will surely notice certain similarities between Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness and The Metal Monster.
Though The Metal Monster should feel dated, it surprisingly seems as innovative and fresh today as it must have upon first publication. The lesson learned, it would seem, is that a great author is able to create works that transcend time.
ANOTHER WINNING FANTASY BY A. MERRITT.......2004-03-08
Abraham Merritt's second novel, "The Metal Monster," first saw the light of day in 1920, in "Argosy" magazine. It was not until 1946 that this masterful fantasy creation was printed in book form. In a way, this work is a continuation of Merritt's first novel, "The Moon Pool" (1919), as it is a narrative of America's foremost botanist, Dr. Walter T. Goodwin, narrator of that earlier adventure as well. As Goodwin tells us, he initially set out on this second great adventure to forget the terrible incidents of the first; if anything, however, the events depicted in "The Metal Monster" are at least as mindblowing as those in the earlier tale. While Goodwin had encountered underground civilizations, frogmen, battling priestesses and a living-light entity in the earlier tale, this time around he discovers, in the Trans-Himalayan wastes of Tibet, a surviving Persian city, a half-human priestess, AND an entire civilization made up of living, metallic, geometric forms; an entire city of sentient cubes, globes and tetrahedrons, capable of joining together and forming colossal shapes, and wielding death rays and other armaments of destruction. As in the earlier tale, Goodwin is joined in his epic adventure by a small group of can-do individuals that he meets in the most unlikely, godforsaken areas of the world. This time around, it's a brother-and-sister team of scientists, as well as the son of one of Goodwin's old science buddies.
The sense of awe and wonder so crucial to good adventure fantasy is of a very high order in this book. Goodwin & Co., in one of the book's best set pieces, explore the living city of metal, and witness the life forms feeding off the sun, reproducing, and preparing for war. Later on, Merrittt treats us to a titanic battle between the metal folk and the lost Persians, as well as an hallucinatory cataclysm at the novel's end. Indeed, much of the book IS hallucinatory, with the metal shapes coalescing and morphing like crazy Transformers gone wild. A book by A. Merritt would be nothing without his hyperstylized, lush purple prose, and in this tale, his gift for somewhat prolix prose is given full vent. At times these incessant descriptions wear a bit thin, and at others they paradoxically fail to stir up pictures in the reader's mind eye. (I defy anyone, for example, to say that he/she was able to fully visualize Goodwin & Co.'s initial nighttime entry into the city of the metal people.) For the most part, though, these descriptions are amazing. Just take this one small sample. Whereas other writers might simply say that Goodwin entered a chamber with multicolored lights, here's what Merritt gives us:
"...a limitless temple of light. High up in it, strewn manifold, danced and shone soft orbs like tender suns. No pale gilt luminaries of frozen rays were these. Effulgent, jubilant, they flamed--orbs red as wine of rubies that Djinns of Al Shiraz press from his enchanted vineyards of jewels; twin orbs rose white as breasts of pampered Babylonian maids; orbs of pulsing opalescences and orbs of the murmuring green of bursting buds of spring, crocused orbs and orbs of royal coral; suns that throbbed with singing rays of wedded rose and pearl and of sapphires and topazes amorous; orbs born of cool virginal dawns and of imperial sunsets and orbs that were the tuliped fruit of mating rainbows of fire...."
Almost like prose poetry, isn't it? With writing like this, a well-thought-out plot, exotic settings and some great action sequences, "The Metal Monster" does indeed live up to its rep as a fantasy classic. There ARE some unanswered questions by the book's end, but that only adds to the aura of cosmic mystery that Merritt has built up. The book is a winner, indeed.
mind-blowing escapism.......2002-12-06
This is one of the wildest and most imaginative of the early pulp novels. Though it suffers from various plot weaknesses and simplistic characterizations (I've docked it one star for a somewhat racist caricature), the visual descriptions of this hidden world and the geometric shapes that form and reform into various entities are the most mind-blowing this side of a tab of blotter acid. With the advances in computer animation today, someone could do this novel justice and make a stunning movie.
Average customer rating:
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AC/DC (Monsters of Metal)
Tim Holmes
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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ASIN: 0345332393
Release Date: 1986-06-12 |
Customer Reviews:
good.......2004-07-09
this book is pretty sweet
Product Description
Heavy Metal Monsters issue #1. Mature Readers. January 1992.
Average customer rating:
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THE METAL MONSTER
Manufacturer: Avon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GQVN4A |
Average customer rating:
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The Metal Monster
A. Merritt
Manufacturer: Avon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: B000OM70GQ |
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The Metal Monster
Manufacturer: Avon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000I6WK0Y |
Customer Reviews:
amazing! .......2006-05-27
Great book. Extremely readable - you won't want to put it down. And it ties in the latest scientific evidence to real life. I'm a scientist and I love it. My friend is a writer and loved it. For all people.
Amazon.com
What's going on in there? One of the great scientific and philosophical mysteries is how a few pounds of wet, salty cobwebs can give rise to the rich experience that we call consciousness. Oxford neuroscientist Susan Greenfield peers inside the dimly lit skull to show us what she thinks is going on in The Private Life of the Brain. Greenfield has a facility for explaining tricky scientific concepts in language that can engage any reader. She presents the basics of contemporary thought on consciousness as they relate to her own theory, which involves a continuum of experience between sensual, emotional grounding in the surrounding world and rational, cognitive withdrawal into mental life. Arguing from a wide range of animal and human research, and drawing on the work of philosophers John Searle and Daniel Dennett, she makes her case compellingly but gently, granting that other theories might also hold in this still-uncharted territory. Looking in depth at depression, drug use, and fear, Greenfield shows how each is explained by her continuum theory and how each relates to the life of the human organism as a whole. Could it be true that as our minds work harder, our hearts lose some feeling, and vice versa? It's an intriguing, thought-provoking idea, one that alone makes The Private Life of the Brain essential reading for minds seeking self-enlightenment. --Rob Lightner
Book Description
"Drawing on many different sources-the effects of neurological disorders and injuries, the actions of drugs, the character of thought in dreams, in schizophrenia, in reverie, and in childhood-Susan Greenfield has given us a synthesis which is challenging, original, readable, and personal."-Oliver Sacks
How does the human brain produce your private world?
In this groundbreaking exploration, neuroscientist and author Susan Greenfield demystifies the private life of the brain. She examines the physical basis of our emotions and searches for the answer to one of the most enduring mysteries in modern science: How does the brain create a unique, subjective experience for each one of us?
Utilizing cutting-edge research and compelling personal anecdotes, Greenfield reveals that emotions, triggered by individual life experiences, are the very foundation upon which our brains build our unique minds. In this absorbing, lyrical exploration, Dr. Greenfield presents a provocative new theory that provides an illuminating glimpse into the human brain and reveals the astonishing essence of who we are.
"This is one of those rare books that can make a reader happy to have been led to think."-Booklist
Customer Reviews:
Complex but interesting........2003-07-07
The Private Life of the Brain by Susan Greenfield is a very complex work on consciousness and theory of self. Trained in the field of neuropharmacology and physiology with degrees from St. Hilda's College, Oxford, United Kingdom, the College de France, Paris, and NYU Medical Center, New York, the author has held lecture posts at several of the world's prestigious universities including Lincoln College, Oxford, the Institute of Neuroscience, La Jolla, California, and Queens University, Belfast. In 1998 she became the first female director of Britain's Royal Institution. Her current research is in the causes of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. With this vita she is eminently equipped to discuss the topic.
Although the book seems to be a bit rambling, this is because it covers a lot of territory-but then there is a lot of territory to cover: brain anatomy-physiology, chemistry, neuro-connections, diseases, emotions, consciousness and the emergent self. Probably because she is a pharmacologist and physiologist and most especially a scientist, she approaches her subject by dividing it into aspects that illuminate these characteristics and give rise to testable hypotheses regarding the inner workings of the brain and mind. The chapter headings are therefore: 1) The Idea (the problem of consciousness), 2) The Story So Far (a history of the theories of mind), 3) The Child (early consciousness), 4) The Junkie (pain, euphoria, neuro-effective and neurophysiological chemicals), 5) The Nightmare (loss of consciousness), 6) The Depressive (highs and lows of consciousness), 7) The Human Condition (emotions and a theory of consciousness), 8) The Answer (the wrap up). Certainly much of the material, especially in the first two chapters, is a recap of the work of others. This is the usual approach to a topic about which one wishes to introduce new information; first you inform your reader of what has been done and by whom and how it fits with what you are yourself doing. Much of this may be new to those who have not studied anything about mind-brain research, but for those who have the names will be familiar: Edelman, Aleksander, Chalmers, Crick and Koch, Calvin, and Dennett, among others. In line with this style of authorship, most of the bibliography Greenfield cites is in the form of articles in prestigious professional journals from the 1980s to the 1990s (the book was published in 2000). One finds here periodicals like Science, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Neurology, Journal of Cell Science, etc. Most of these entries will probably not interest any but the professional in the field. Fortunately the author has done most of the work herself and puts the research into understandable perspective for the amateur.
For myself, I found some of the information very interesting, even useful in my profession. I had heard of and even seen ecupuncture use to control some types of pain, but had felt that it was all a placebo effect. Professor Greenfield pointed out, however, that research on the topic reveals that naloxone (Narcan) can reverse the effects of ecupuncture just as it can the effects of narcotic analgesics. Since I've given naloxone to over narcotized patients (it's preferable to waking them up and asking them to "breathe") I have seen its effects. The knowledge that it is effective in reversing ecupuncture suggests that while the effect of ecupuncture might be "in the mind" it is also legitimate and physiological. I also found the information on brain physiology/chemistry in analgesia and anesthesia informative, since I work in Recovery Room and ICU nursing where I see the effects of these drugs are often very individual.
As to the topics of mind, consciousness and self I would say that the author's thesis is far more convincing than any other I've read so far, if for no other reason than that she offers substantial physiological and chemical proof in favor of it and that it gives rise to testable hypotheses. As she writes: "The key concepts arising from this book are as follows: (1) emotion is the most basic form of consciousness; (2) minds develop as brains do-both as a species and as an individual starts to escape genetic programming in favor of personal experience-based learning; (3) the more you have of (1) at any moment, then the less you have of (2), and vice versa. The more the mind predominates over raw emotion, the deeper the consciousness (pp. 181-182)."
A very informative if somewhat complex book.
A bit unfocused.......2003-06-05
"The more we feel, the less we are, literally, ourselves - the less encumbered we are by previous, idiosyncratic associations the personalize the brain into the mind"
This is the authors proposal, and she uses the examples of the child, the junkie, the depressive to show how this theory plays out in actual experience.
She equates emotions with nature, living in the moment and lower brain structures and equates thoughts with nurture, reflection and the prefrontal cortex.
This dichotomy seems spot on in some of her examples and I could see some parallels to my own life. However, sometimes I couldn't understand her at all, I have no doubt that what she was trying to say made sense to her but to me it seemed like unfocused wandering. I prefer a more structured book
Frustrating.......2003-03-25
All the author did was to put together a long string of Names and refefences. I wish I could remember anything from the book, but no, not even the sentence that was repeated about 1000 times...
Read if your brain does indeed have a private life.......2002-01-22
Not for those who, like some of the other reviewers, have an IQ of less than 85. This book attempts to make an American audience THINK...which is an audacious undertaking, given how most folks do not want to USE their brain...& they complain when someone else DOES! This is a masterful book.
The brain is a rather complex thing!.......2002-01-21
There is no "gene for", no "brain region for",
and no "transmitter chemical for" a particular human
behaviour or cognitive function. I.e. we will
not be able to express a sophisticated brain function
in terms of one feature alone,
Susan Greenfield tells us.
Rather, genes, chemicals and brain regions work
together in a complex and highly intricate
way to produce a behaviour.
So, the book offers no swift catchphrases,
as those so often seen on TV, e.g.: "The chemical
dopamine is a molecule for pleasure,
all human activity therefore evolves around obtaining
higher dopamine levels in the brain".
Instead, Susan Greenfield offers a thorough (and,
must be said, sometimes complex bordering
something almost selfcontradictory)
neuroscientific explanation of mental states,
the effect of drugs, how emotion will ebb and flow in
inverse relation to selfconsciousness etc.
I was particular pleased with the chapter on the
effects of drugs in the brain.
Here I really felt I learned something
about what is really going on inside
a brain under the influence of drugs.
Which also gives an inside into the workings
of a normal brain.
However I wasn't completely swayed by her
explanations concerning consciousness I.e.:
Emotions are found to be "the most basic form
of consciousness" Greenfield states,
but how does that help us to know what consciousness IS?
The book could have digged deeper here.
Still, it is highly recommended.
-Simon
Average customer rating:
- Missed opportunity
- Incorrect facts, misguided speculation
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The Science of Romance: Secrets of the Sexual Brain
Nigel Barber
Manufacturer: Prometheus Books
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Binding: Hardcover
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The Alchemy of Love and Lust
ASIN: 1573929700 |
Book Description
Have you ever wondered why divorce is so much more common now than a century ago? Why the sex appeal of certain body types and clothing styles changes so dramatically over time? Why so many liberated young women today prefer emotional commitment from men while their male counterparts seem always more interested in "sowing their wild oats"?
According to evolutionary psychologist Nigel Barber, each of these aspects of modern life reflects two million years of hominid evolution. In THE SCIENCE OF ROMANCE he explains that much of our present behavior can be traced back to the ancient evolved motives of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. In short, we exhibit the propensities that have evolved over millennia to increase reproductive success. Also drawing on the mating behavior of various animals, Barber finds illuminating comparisions that help to explain human actions and reactions.
Barber delves into a host of interesting topics: dating competition and aggression; female courtship signals that subtly manipulate male behavior; how exposure to different sex hormones shapes the evolving brain in utero, which may account for the different behaviors of men and women; and much more.
This absorbing book educates and entertains, while showing that many seemingly irrational aspects of our intimate romantic behavior make sense when understood in terms of our prehistoric ancestors and evolution.
Customer Reviews:
Missed opportunity.......2003-11-23
Evolutionary psychology best describes the discipline of this work, which acknowledges The Evolution of Human Sexuality, by Donald Symons (1979), as its inspiration. In a dozen chapters, Nigel Barber covers a range of interrelated topics, including physical attractiveness and sex signals, dating competition and aggression, cheating, and single parenthood. Unfortunately, problems of bias, repetition, loose ends, and awkward examples weaken the result so that analysis of the flaws serves well as an exercise for the target audience-advanced high school to college age and up.
Barber makes too much of the Columbine high school shooting as an example of the aggressive expression of status deficiency in the mating game. He refers to a "rash" of school shootings, when these events actually are rare and extreme. Though often employing anecdotes as evidence himself, he faults social scientists as lacking in objectivity: "Cultural explanations have little scientific merit...."
Barber wants to explain romance in biological and economic terms and, as a result, leaves out what is most human. Sexual passion cools, he says, all but forgetting that good relationships stay warm. He leaves unsaid whether evolution explains women's increasing sexual interest with age-i.e., after peak reproductive years. In addition, some cited research is quirky: "Merely thinking about their spouse having sex with a rival produced a much larger physiological response in men than in women. For example, the heart rate increased by an amount equivalent to the effect of drinking two cups of coffee." Is that a lot or a little?
Fortunately, there is a worthwhile book on romance that integrates evolutionary principles with good social science: Garth Fletcher's The New Science of Intimate Relations (Blackwell, 2002). --E. James Lieberman, George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC
Incorrect facts, misguided speculation.......2003-09-05
Barber presents a variety of poorly connected, often incorrect facts, then develop misguided theories from the facts.
For example, on pages 13-15 he notes correctly that in hunter-gatherer societies, women provide more food than men. From this he argues that this gives hunter-gatherer women more sexual freedom, which they enjoy by having sex with the most successful hunters, because these hunters give them more meat. Huh? The women with the most food have sex with the men who give them the most food?
Barber writes (page 14) that women in agricultural societies had little economic power. This isn't true. Power in agricultural societies was held by families that owned the best land. Women in landowning families had more power than peasant men.
Chapter One, "The Sexual Brain," continues the rambling style, moving from how ringdoves court to cognitive differences between men's and women's brains (e.g., men are better at visual rotation tasks), to the effects of learning to play a stringed instrument on children's brain development, and the correlation between men's testosterone and crime. The author seems to have written the book from a set of index cards, and the cards were sometimes shuffled randomly.
Barber presents a long discussion of developmental hormone abnormalities, e.g., CAH, relating to adult homosexuality. But he never explains fetal testosterone, which is the basis of normal and abnormal development. Then he wanders off to INAH3 abnormalities in gay men, which is a minor, debatable issue.
Next, Barber discusses PEA (page 37). In this context, he mistakenly describes "companionate" marriages as "lifelong." In reality, many companionate marriages end in divorce, and many non-companionate marriages are lifelong. What this has to do with PEA is unclear.
Chapter Two is "Physical Attractiveness and Sex Signals." On page 52, Barber writes that women can be breast-feeding and pregnant at the same time.
Barber writes (page 51) that in almost all species, males are brightly colored or ornamented, to attract females. He then writes that "among humans, both sexes agree that women are the more physically attractive" sex and that this "fact" shows that "men are in a stronger bargaining position relative to most other male mammals and birds." Barber fails to note that in other cultures, such Masai young men in Kenya, or at other times, such as aristocratic men before the French Revolution, men adorned themselves to look beautiful.
On page 53, Barber writes that peahens look plain compared to peacocks, therefore "peacocks are not drawn to the physical attractiveness of mates." But peacocks might see peahens differently than Barber sees peahens. Barber's theory is unsupported by fact. He jumps from fact (peahens look plainer than peacocks) to speculative theory (peacocks don't see one peahen as more attractive than any other peahen).
Chapter 3 is titled "Love's Labors: Dating Competition and Aggression." Barber begins by oversimplifying (page 70) that "testosterone causes aggression." This chapter extensively describes a 14-year-old boy who killed three girls at his Kentucky high school in 1997. But the facts contradict Barber's theory that testosterone made the boy kill the girls. Testosterone might drive men to kill other, rival men, but not to kill women. And Barber describes the boy as five feet tall, 110 pounds, "far from physically impressive," and psychologically childish. This description suggests that the boy had low testosterone, not high testosterone! Also, Barber states that between 1997 and 1999, all school shooting were perpetrated by boys. That may be true, but in 1979 14-year-old Brenda Spencer opened fire at a San Diego elementary school (made famous by the song "I Don't Like Mondays"), killing two adults and wounding seven children.
On page 77, Barbur notes that testosterone increases friendliness in men -- which contradicts the previous seven pages.
On page 78, Barber states that alcohol reduces serotonin. The opposite is true (David Lovinger, "The Role of Serotonin in Alcohol's Effects on the Brain," Current Separations 18:1 (1999), page 24).
Barber presents an entire chapter about testosterone (pages 69-88), but no chapter about estrogen or progesterone. I.e., he writes about the male sex drive, but ignores the female sex drive.
Chapter 5 is titled "The Cheating Hearts of Birds and Humans." Barber writes (page 124) "a single act of sexual intercourse can entirely undermine a large chunk of a man's lifetime reproductive effort." Perhaps this is a misprint, and Barber intended to say that a Victorian woman's life could be ruined by one sexual experience.
Barber writes (page 127) that "prostitutes are almost always women." I've heard that in some cities "streetwalkers" are almost all transvestite men.
On page 147, Barber writes that "when the economic and political power of women rises" the divorce rate increases. This is a wrong conclusion from two correct facts: women earn more today than 30 years ago, and a higher percentages of marriages end in divorce today, compared to 30 years ago. Barber fails to note that marriages last longer, on average, than at any time in the past. Both the increased length of marriage and the higher divorce rate are due to longer lifespans. Women's earning power has nothing to do with it.
On page 147, Barber writes that "Women's agendas are much more focused on providing a good environment in which to raise children, whereas men's agendas are more focused on maximizing the number of children produced; they strive to have sex often and with different women." This is the conventional view, but women "agendas" include changing partners, especially before marriage; and men's "agendas" include being a good father, especially after marriage. Barber seems to think that married women's behavior is normal for women, and bachelor behavior is normal for men, and conversely that marriage is abnormal for men and being single is abnormal for women.
On page 150, Barber refers to a 1983 book purporting that the increasing divorce rate was due to a shortage of marriagable men. That was true in 1983. Barber fails to note that by 1987 the marriageable male/female ratio reversed, and we're now in a "women shortage" era. Barber instead claims (page 154) that the population sex ratio has remained unchanged over the past 30 years. This is true, but for some reason the millions of unmarried elderly women don't marry the millions of unmarried young men. Barber notes that it would be better to consider population sex ratios by age cohort instead of using the overall population sex ratio. This information can be downloaded free from the Census Bureau, but Barber didn't.
On page 153, Barber writes that on the American frontier of the 19th century, a shortage of women made men devoted to their wives and made marriages stable. In reality, many men went to the frontier (or emigrated to the United States) to escape marriages.
On page 166, Barber that "actors and entertainers" "again and again" show an "insecure pattern" of unstable marriages, due to childhood abuse. On page 185, Barber writes that "typical Hollywood marriages" last two or three years. But I've heard of many actors and actresses with long marriages.
On page 192, Barber writes that 1949 was during World War II. Well, he got the decade right. :-)
Chapter 9 is about teenage pregnancy among poor inner-city African-Americans. Barber concludes (page 229) that teenage pregnancy could be stopped by improving economic conditions, especially for young inner-city African-American men. That may have been believable in 1965, when Lyndon Johnson started the "Great Society" programs, but today it's clear that teenage pregnancy leads to poverty at least as much as the reverse.
Chapter 10 is about fashions, both clothing and body size and shape. This chapter contains too many errors to list. I'll just mention one (page 225), that women dislike bearded men because beards communicate that a man is sexually promiscuous. Conversely, women like clean-shaven men because they're like sexually restricted nuns. Huh?
I'll give Barber two stars because he sometimes gets facts right. But this book has too many mistakes for me to recommend it.
--
Review by Thomas David Kehoe, author of "Hearts and Minds: How Our Brains Are Hardwired for Relationships"
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