Bad Blood: A Novel (Alexandra Cooper Mysteries)

Book Description

Bad Blood finds Assistant DA Alexandra Cooper deeply involved in a complicated, high-profile homicide case. Defendant Brendan Quillian, a prominent young businessman, is charged with the brutal strangulation of his beautiful young wife, Amanda. His conviction is not a certainty: Quillian was conveniently out of town on the day of the killing, and he has hired a formidable defense attorney who seems one step ahead of Cooper as the trial opens. But with the help of detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, she is confident she can prove Quillian paid a hit man to commit the crime.

Halfway through the trial, a major catastrophe alters the course of Alex's case. A cataclysmic ex-plosion rips through New York City's Water Tunnel #3, a spectacular feat of modern engineering that will be completed years in the future. Carved through bedrock six hundred feet underground, the tunnel will replace a vital artery in the city's rapidly deteriorating water supply system. Was the blast caused by terrorism? Political retribution? Or was it merely an accident? Cooper is quickly drawn into the trag-edy when she discovers a strange connection linking Brendan Quillian to the tunnel workers killed in the explosion.

At the same time, Alex meets a mysterious, handsome stranger. Should she get to know him better? Before the answer is clear, she is pulled back into the case, which is becoming more dangerous by the hour. She and Chapman descend deep into the earth to penetrate the subterranean universe of the sandhogs, as the brotherhood of tunnel workers are colorfully known. Their probe soon leads to another murder victim, whose blood may hold the key to Cooper's mesmerizingly complex case. One closely held secret reveals another, and soon Alex discovers that only by unraveling ancient rivalries among sandhog families will she be able to solve the murder of Amanda Quillian -- and save her own life as well.

A riveting tale of up-to-the-minute urban intrigue, Bad Blood is rich with New York City lore and fascinating legal insights that only Fairstein, Manhattan's former sex crimes prosecutor, can deliver. Told in her signature authentic style, Bad Blood is packed with the same twists and turns that made her last novel, Death Dance, a runaway bestseller and that never fail to thrill her legions of devoted readers.

Customer Reviews:

Satisfaction Continues.......2007-09-30

I have enjoyed Fairsteinn's books-all of her Alexandra Cooper series- I automatically order them because I know they will provide an interesting learning experience as well as a satisfying read. Her works are character driven and, thus, when is one is finished, I feel I have closed the page on well known companions. Bad Blood was well done.

Excellent suspense and storytelling.......2007-08-03

In my opinion, I thought "Bad Blood" was an excellent read, and it kept my interest as I followed Alex Cooper as she searched for answers to solve a tunnel explosion and a man on trial for the murder of his wife. The story moves along at a quick pace and I felt it was an interesting read. The reviews are numerous on this tale, so there's no need at this point to recap the story further, else I may give away more of the story for those folks that haven't read it. I will add that it was very educational to learn (which I always enjoy) about the water tunnels of New York City. It was very apparent that Ms. Fairstein did a considerable amount research into this subject and I appreciate her effort. Overall, if you enjoy a great mystery you won't be disappointed in "Bad Blood". I'd gladly recommend it to anyone.

Might Be the Best in the Series..........2007-05-25

...and I've read every one, in order. "Bad Blood" combines all the aspects of a Fairstein novel: obscure New York history (sometimes it's too long and very boring; in this case, it was fascinating), a trip to Martha's Vineyard (mercifully short this time), a usually riveting mystery, and a cast of characters we've learned to love.

The book begins calmly enough with Alexandra Cooper prosecuting a very difficult case against a Johnnie Cochran-type defense attorney. The defendant, wealthy society-type Brendan Quillian, stands accused of murdering his wife, Amanda, by manual strangulation. Alex's case is very weak, much more than normal, even though she knows he did it, or hired somebody to do it. We accompany her to the courtroom for several tense, disappointing days--and then all hell breaks lose.

A dangerous explosion in New York's extensive "underground city" that houses Manhatta's entire supply of water (and here is where the fascinating factoids come in) may be an act of terrorism--or some sort of deadly vendetta among rival families who have worked these tunnels for generations. That is bad enough--but what is the connection between snotty Brendan Quillian and the gangs who work below the city? And how will it affect Alex's case?

The book zips through the tale with all the usual elements in place: danger, pathos, drama, and deep, dark secrets, until the denoument, where, for a heart-stopping minute or two, we think her long-time sidekick Mike Chapman might have been killed.

Great stuff. A perfect "beginning of summer" read.

Fairstein never disappoints.......2007-05-14

Each of Fairstein's series of books featuring Alexandra Cooper gets better and better. What I most like about her writing is that in addition to being riveting legal thrillers, they always teach me something about New York City that I never knew before. Hope she never stops writing!

Same characters, different disaster.......2007-04-08

I'm a fan of characters moving from one book to the next. I love Patricia Cornwell for this very reason as well. Alexandra Cooper is a character that I have learned and always want to know what's going to happen next.
What I don't like about the books, including this one, is Cooper's money and that she has a house on Martha's Vineyard. Maybe I'm just not one for sentimentality, but yes, I know her soon-to-be husband was killed on the way to their weeding; yes I know how they were affected by 9/11. Let's move on to some other interesting things about the characters.

Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, Revised Edition

Average customer rating:

Tuskegee Experiment & Crack Epidemic
African-American Victims Of Government Laboratory Experiments!!!
Something In This Milk Ain't "White" Blues
or, How racism permeates...
A Shocking Medical Experiment in the American South

Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, Revised Edition
James H. Jones , and Jones
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0029166764

Customer Reviews:

Tuskegee Experiment & Crack Epidemic.......2005-12-27

Bad Blood points out that the US Surgeon General at the time was Hugh Smith Cumming. In 1939 he was responsible more than any other person for creating the system we now have in place that controls narcotics and other banned substances which San Jose Mercury News journalist and Pulitizer Prize Winner, Gary Webb, said was controlled by a handful of power elites through the CIA.

Fearing a race war when Webb's information was exposed, Bill Clinton, who apolgized for the Tuskegee Experiment, also sent CIA Director John Deutsch to LA to quell a groundswell of complaints among blacks who feared (rigtly) that their goverment was poisoning inner city youth with drugs.

Hugh Smith Cumming's close kin married Chase Untermeyer, the US Navy Officer who became the Texas State Representative from the exclusive Tanglewood area of Houston where GHWB had his disputed Texas address while in office. Untermeyer's bride is from the Hugh Smith Cumming family and was on the staff of GHWB's legal counsel. Untermeyer is now Ambassador to Qatar.

Webb's work shined a light on the Reagan/Bush backed CIA Iran-Contra drug distribution in the US. Webb's book DARK ALLIANCE, when combined with BAD BLOOD shows how close we have come to a Fascist State.

Remember that next time CNN, FOX or the rest report on the White House's interest in bugging your telephones.

Corpus Christi, TX

African-American Victims Of Government Laboratory Experiments!!!.......2005-09-16

One of the least known facts of U.S. history is the government sponsored syphilis experiment conducted upon 399 African-American men from 1932 to 1972. Over the course of these five decades, the U.S. Public Health Service exploited African-American sharecroppers in its effort to determine if the long-term affects of syphilis were different for black people than it was for white people. During the trials, the doctors who conducted the experimentations intentionally denied these men treatment; never informed them of syphilis' destructiveness to their health; and ignored the fact that these men were infecting their respective wives and sexual partners with the disease. As the experiments continued, doctors calculatedly deceived the subjects, informing them that they were suffering from what was categorized as: "bad blood". As the disease ravaged the minds and bodies of these unsuspecting men, no effort was made by the physicians of the Public Health Service to either inform them regarding the disease or provide them with treatment in an effort to curtail its devastating effects.

Jones presents a detailed, non-sensationalized writing that delves into the ignorance, racism and outright inhumanity that was entrenched throughout the United States; the medical arena; and society in general prior to and during these horrific experiments. He provides a plethora of documentation to substantiate the bigotry and callousness of the medical field during the era, and acknowledges the data provided by individuals who participated in the experiments or who conveyed valuable information. By the end of the experimentation, at least 28 of the men had died of syphilis; over 100 died of related complications; at least 40 of their wives had been infected, and over 20 of their children had been born with congenital syphilis.

Bad Blood should be read by all those who are of the opinion that the upper echelons of U.S. society (in this case, the medial profession and the government itself) are above despicable acts that border on genocide. Clearly there is no conspiracy "theory" here...instead we find conspiracy FACT! Perhaps former U.S. President Bill Clinton's statement regarding the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments encapsulates the incident best in his speech to the last eight survivors of the experiments in 1997: "The United States government did something that was wrong-deeply, profoundly, morally wrong. It was an outrage to our commitment to integrity and equality for all our citizens...clearly racist".

Something In This Milk Ain't "White" Blues.......2005-05-28

During the 40 years of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, the school had threee usa negroid ethnic presidents...

Dr. Robert R. Moton
Dr. Frederick D. Patterson
Dr. Luther H. Foster

Interesting, also is the little mentioned fact that more than 200 USA Negroid ethnic medical students and 600 USA Negroid ethnic nursing students did clinic rounds within the Syphilis Study...

Why did not one of these "professional and educated" Negroes sound the alarm that something was ethical wrong about what was being done to those 200 or so "sexually diseased "poor country" negroes"?

This story is less to do with so-called "white racism" but rather humankind's condition since it "climbed out or fall out" of the trees of that "misty and forever lost" Eden...

Which is the reality that...

Educated, powerful, "cold and greedy" human beings (dark pale or otherwise) will always screw "illiterate, materally poor and mentally weak" human beings - when the "High/Holy with little moral character" feel that they can get away with it.

Blues at you

or, How racism permeates..........2004-03-21

I am not a doctor, a researcher nor an ethicist. I am an African American woman who grew up in southern Virginia, has heard off-the-cuff references to the Tuskegee incident almost all of my conscious-life, and finally wanted to read its details. While I agree with one reviewer who pointed out that the text does not read like a "thriller," I found the writing easy to understand as an indictment of racism whether systemically or individually manifest. I appreciate that the author took great care to provide a general framework of how people respond to the medical establishment (e.g. "follow the doctor's orders") while also detailing the way by which the doctors deliberately manipulated that trust to ensure the compliance of rural black men and black members of the profession. The latter is important - the author shows compliance and allegiance among the black medical officials who were pulled into the experiment, subtly encouraged by monetary or status rewards. I also like how the author painstakingly pulled together the text of meetings, memos and memoirs to show how bureaucracy, tradition and group think work to create racist outcomes - it suggested a universality to it, not a "only in the medical establishment" or "only in the South" version of events. And the author's telling of how all the institutions and individuals, when caught, backpedaled or otherwise covered up their role in the experiment was just amazing... Highly recommended.

A Shocking Medical Experiment in the American South.......2003-05-04

This book was excellent and informative. However, readers should know that it is written in a research style, almost like a text book (sometimes putting the reader to sleep-and the reason I am only rating it four stars), as opposed to being written by an investigative reporter (and reading like a thriller). The book is extremely well documented. The author was intimately involved with helping lawyer Gray (Rosa Parks' lawyer) prosecute the case against the federal government, by providing much of the documentation given in this book. He began work on the book while a student in Harvard's bioethics program in 1972, and only subsequently becoming involved with lawyer Gray.

The book is a complete history from the conception of the experiment, until its termination, including the viewpoints of ALL participants. In addition to learning about the experiment itself, I learned a lot about life in the rural American South, which I had not previously known, and a lot about the disease of syphilis that I hadn't known. Some examples: I didn't know that 30-40 percent of blacks in the rural South were infected, nor that the disease crosses the placental barrier, which caused a lot of syphilitic babies. The book includes pictures of syphilitic skin lesions, and discusses multiple complications of the late stages of the disease.

The book also delves into the moral and racial issues extensively. There is an updated chapter at the end comparing the syphilis crisis to the AIDS crisis, and discusses why so many blacks are distrustful of doctors and hospitals-this experiment simply being one of the most recent examples of how this segment of our society as lied to, and taken advantage of.

What was MOST shocking to me about this book was that I was born in 1955, and this experiment continued into the mid-1970's. The FIRST time it was questioned on moral grounds was about 1962, and throughout the 60's, most doctors did not even QUESTION the morality! The story was broken the same day as Sargent Shiver's having obtained psychiatric counseling-the latter story I heard about extensively, and the former not at all! Before buying this book, I had never even heard of this medical experiment, and I just can't believe things like this were taking place IN
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA until the mid-1970's!!!

Big City, Bad Blood: A Novel
Average customer rating:

My kind of town, my kind of book

Fantastic Debut

Impressive Debut, but not Without Flaws

Best debut novel I've read in awhile

"Stormy, Husky, Brawling, City of the Big Shoulders"

Big City, Bad Blood: A Novel
Sean Chercover
Manufacturer: William Morrow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0061128678
Release Date: 2007-01-09

Book Description

A disillusioned newspaper reporter turned private detective, Ray Dudgeon isn't trying to save the world. He just wants to do an honest job, and do it well. But when doing an honest job threatens society's most powerful and corrupt, Ray's odds for survival make for a sucker's bet. . . .

While working on a movie in Chicago, Hollywood locations manager Bob Loniski saw something he shouldn't have. Now he's a prosecution witness against a suspected member of the Chicago Outfit. Petrified, he comes to Ray for protection. Ray's mob contacts insist that they have no interest in Loniski, so he takes the bodyguard gig.

Then people start dying and everything goes to hell.

Ray's investigation leads to a stash of blackmail files involving the sex trade, Washington political corruption, and a deadly power struggle among Chicago's organized crime bosses—setting the FBI, the Chicago police, and the mob on his tail. He now holds evidence against top-ranking cops and politicians . . . but with the line between good and bad blurring, he doesn't know who he can trust.

If he does the right thing, Ray is sure to die. But if he doesn't, how can he live with himself?

From the back alleys of Chicago to the man-sions of Beverly Hills to the corridors of power in Washington, D.C., Sean Chercover's Big City, Bad Blood propels readers relentlessly forward on a bullet-fast, adrenaline-pumping ride they will not soon forget.

Customer Reviews:

My kind of town, my kind of book.......2007-10-21

Extraordinary debut novel! Ray Durgeon is a familiar yet original private eye with all the requisite baggage, wit, and excesses such characters are heir to. Chercover's strong voice, vivid characters, gritty, authentic Chicago backdrop and can't-put-it-down plot will be sure to earn this one a spot on the award ballots. First novels are usually a bit wobbly, but there is no evidence of training wheels on this one. It'll fit nicely on the darker side of your shelf next to Raymond Chandler, Lawrence Block, and Ross Macdonald.

Fantastic Debut.......2007-08-10

This is a book that grabs you from the first page and doesn't let go until you've read the last word. Chercover is a serious talent and I can't wait to read his next!

Impressive Debut, but not Without Flaws.......2007-06-20

I've read many hundreds of crime/thriller books, and I think that BIG CITY BAD BLOOD is a very well written debut. It's hard to believe that Sean Chercover is a first-time writer -- this PI novel is better written than many novels I've read by experienced authors.

The first hundred or so pages of this novel are really flat-out superb. Chercover does a very good job introducing the main PI character, Ray Dudgeon, and making him a very likable yet believable character. The first half of this novel deals with Dudgeon's working as a bodyguard for a Hollywood location manager named Bob Loniski. I thought this section of the novel was quite enjoyable, clever and interesting.

Unfortunately, the second half of this novel is rather overblown and unrealistic. Dudgeon returns to Chicago, gets in trouble with the Chicago mafia, and much of novel consists of him running pell-mell from one violent encounter to another. For whatever reason, Chercover introduces a whole bunch of new characters that aren't as well developed as they should be. I found this section of the novel too convoluted and over-the-top.

I'm guessing that this is the first book in a series. My advice to Chercover is to tell smaller, more realistic stories with Dudgeon, and avoid the temptation to produce another overstuffed, overblown plotline like the one I found here.

Three and a half stars.

Best debut novel I've read in awhile.......2007-03-25

I would never have known that this was the author's first novel if I hadn't been informed that this was the case. The book is well-written with tightly-knit prose, realistic dialogue and an intriguing plot. Best of all, the characters are well-fleshed, and even though this is the first of a series, I felt like I knew PI Ray Dudgeon very well by the end of the book. We learn enough about him and his past and personal life to care about him, but the book doesn't get bogged down in endless details. Chercover manages to strike a good balance between character development and keeping the book focused and on track, and he writes like an old pro. I have to say that I'm not generally a big fan of books that heavily feature a "mafia" element to them, but despite that, I'd give this book a five stars PLUS if I could! Highly recommended.

"Stormy, Husky, Brawling, City of the Big Shoulders".......2007-02-21

Kudos to author Sean Chercover and his irreverent Chicago PI Ray Dudgeon in this smart, well paced, debut. Dudgeon, a former investigation reporter for the Chicago Chronicle, takes on an assignment to guard Bob Loniski, a middle level Hollywood exec who sees something he shouldn't have while managing the logistics for film shoot on location in Chicago. In less time than it takes for the Cubs to blow any shot at a pennant, Dudgeon and Loniski are up to their kielbasas in Chicago mobsters and a rising body count. Chercover lays out a plausible plot early on, so there's not a lot of guessing, but any lack of intrigue is amply compensated by lively dialogue, a rich cast, and political scandal that is as much a part of the Windy City's legacy as Al Capone. More Mike Royko than Carl Sandburg, Chercover does a good job of capturing Chicago's gritty charm, especially in contrast to Hollywood's mind-numbing plastic pretentious vacuum.

"Big City, Bad Blood's" Dudgeon may remind you a lot of a Midwest version of Robert Crais' LA detective Elvis Cole, complete with the wise cracks and woman troubles. But far from LA's politically correct brand of bland, Dudgeon is a welcome throwback to the hardboiled heroes of Jim Thompson and Raymond Chandler, lubricating his progress with dark rum on the rocks with a pack of smokes always within easy reach. While some violent relief in the form of Cole's stoic Joe Pike is conspicuously absent, Dudgeon's childhood friend "Gravedigger" emerges late in the book, portending a larger role for the half-crazed sidekick in the inevitable sequels.

In short, a well-crafted and entertaining page-turner that deserves to put Chercover on the crime fiction map. I look forward to the next installment

Average customer rating:

engrossing and self-aware
Not only well written but an amazingly fine book
Post War England
Yowtch! This is a hilarious, wicked, killer of a memoir
Readable - but not a must have

Bad Blood: A Memoir
Lorna Sage
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Release Date: 2003-02-18

Amazon.com

Nobody's unhappy family was ever quite like that of Lorna Sage, whose ruthlessly funny, excruciating, inspiring memoir Bad Blood won England's Whitbread Biography Award. She grew up in the '40s on the Welsh border, in the crossfire between her grandparents, a bitter, bibulous, bookish vicar resembling Jack Sprat and his short, "fat doll" of an ignorant wife. He preached earthy sermons about how one might prefer for a wife "Martha before dinner, Mary after dinner." His wife's "notion of marriage [was] that a man signed you up to have his wicked way with you and should spend the rest of his life paying through the nose." Grandma blackmailed the vicar with his diary of adultery, in which she scribbled vicious comments invaluable to the family historian. She gobbled sweets; he drank, fumed, and helped make Lorna Sage a noted literary critic. There is much more: the vicar's affair with his daughter's school chum, the cosmic impact of Bill Haley and his Comets, Lorna's precocious pregnancy, and the strange way lives ricochet and echo each other. Sage manages to give her rural upbringing a brooding Gothic poignance and the comic force of Cold Comfort Farm. She describes a moment after her grandfather's death in the vicarage, "where everything seemed to be wearing thin and getting see-through, as though a spell were dissolving." But the shades of her clan won't quite fade, and thanks to this book, they're here to stay. --Tim Appelo

Book Description

Blood trickles down through every generation, seeps into every marriage. An international bestseller and winner of the Whitbread Biography Award, Bad Blood is a tragicomic memoir of one woman's escape from a claustrophobic childhood in post-World War II Britain and the story of three generations of the author's family and its marriages.

In one of the most extraordinary memoirs of recent years, Bad Blood brings alive in vivid detail a time -- the '40s and '50s -- not so distant from us but now disappeared. As a portrait of a family and a young girl's place in it, it is unsurpassed.

Customer Reviews:

engrossing and self-aware.......2007-06-25

I read through this book in a long afternoon, finding it totally engrossing. The story is about a young girl growing up under the roof of her grandfather, an intellectual vicar who led a double life of sex and booze, and her grandmother, an angry, disappointed anti-intellectual diabetic who lived for the treats of going to movies, candy, and scented soaps. The two detested each other, and their daughter wore herself out and sacrificed her personality to keep the household going in a very marginal way. The daughter had a daughter of her own, the author of this memoir, Lorna Sage. I don't think the point of this story is that her life was a nightmare, though it was hardly happy. It was about how, as humans, we all just keep making messes of our lives, generation after generation, and we all have our own family history and genetics which determine our strengths and our devastating flaws. Lorna inherited her grandfather's "bad blood", along with his use of books to escape both the place he was in (an isolated, wet, postwar depressed backwater), and the mess he was actively making of his life. In the middle of this mess, Lorna used this gift to survive, and even to struggle out of the quagmire by getting an advanced education.

Not only well written but an amazingly fine book.......2004-09-15

This finely written memoir of her childhood as an Anglican minister's granddaughter. Today, or recently, [she died in 2001] Sage is an English literary critic and her memoir is both appreciably granular and endowed with a coherent overview. Highly recommended. Won the Whitbread Biography Award.

Post War England.......2003-07-16

I grew up in the same 1950's in England and apart from her randy grandad shared many of the same experiences, feelings and general discomfort with the miserable, narrow social conditions in England. Put another way a perfect breeding ground for the english character of inhibitions, repression of feelings, violence and fear of economic success riddled with Edwardian class distinctions of no value/relevance in the 50's. Jealousy of the American post war success and hide bound by genteel poverty everywhere it was not surprising that England's social scene exploded in the 60's and 70's. I left England for the US many years ago to escape the trapped kingdom of the mind and the pathetic lack of real freedoms, nostalgia is the UK's greatest industry and the more books like this that appear will help people understand that england's "ennui" is not that attractive after all !

Yowtch! This is a hilarious, wicked, killer of a memoir.......2003-05-04

Holy moly! You wanna talk about a dysfunctional family? Here it is. It's during the years of WWII. The author's father is off fighting for God and country, and her mother is having a delayed adolescence, so author Lorna Sage is shipped to her grandparents house somewhere in rural England. Her grandparents are weird, weird, weird, but it is their very faults that ultimately make Sage, a well-known and powerful literary critic, into the person she becomes.
Her grandfather is a debauched, intellectual, furious and infuriating vicar whose idiosyncrasies were seemingly limitless. Her grandmother's rage at her lot in life and the man who was responsible for it (and by extension, ALL men) never once abates - and you almost champion her for her constancy.
Bad Blood reads as wicked fun with a strongly feminist underlying message. I loved it.

Readable - but not a must have.......2003-02-09

The story of an unexceptional childhood - mild neglect, some poverty and a very filthy home - neither sordid nor tragic nor eventful enough to be compelling reading. Especially for a person raised in India the dysfunctionality level of childhood/family seems average. The only redeeming feature is Lorna Sage's writing style. Witty and insightful. Normally this should raise a book to atleast 3 and a half stars but somehow this one does not quite make it past "interesting enough to read when there's nothing better to do". To use review cliches since they work so well in describing a book, it is readable but far short of unputdownable.

Good Cholesterol, Bad Cholesterol: An Indispensable Guide to the Facts about Cholesterol

Average customer rating:

It could well be life saving

Good Cholesterol, Bad Cholesterol: An Indispensable Guide to the Facts about Cholesterol
Anita Hirsch
Manufacturer: Marlowe & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1569245282

Book Description

High cholesterol is an important risk factor for heart disease, heart attack, and strokes. And although cholesterol screening is one of the most widely administered and evaluated blood tests, many people don’t realize that our bodies require some cholesterol to function normally and remain confused about which cholesterol is the “good” one and which is the “bad.” Now, in Good Cholesterol, Bad Cholesterol, Hirsch presents a clear, concise primer to all the varieties of this blood lipid, including HDL (high-density lipoprotein), LDL (low-density lipoprotein), VDL (very low density lipoprotein), and others, as well as the connection between the ways various types of fat affect cholesterol levels. Providing essential information about how cholesterol relates to heart disease, stroke, and other life-threatening medical conditions, this essential primer also provides guidance about how to manage your cholesterol levels—through diet, exercise, and stress management—for optimum, lifelong health.

Customer Reviews:

It could well be life saving.......2002-12-06

Good Cholesterol Bad Cholesterol: An Indispensable Guide To The Facts About Cholesterol by nutrition and health expert Anita Hirsch provides a thoroughly "reader friendly" compendium of accurate information about one of the most important risk factors for heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. Readers are provided the facts on all of the varieties of cholesterol (including HDL, LDL, and VDL); show how to determine what their blood cholesterol test results mean; provides guidance on how to manage cholesterol levels through diet, exercise, and stress management; presented with fourteen delicious recipes which will help lower their cholesterol levels, as well as invaluable advice on modifying recipes with healthier ingredients. If you or a loved one is having a problem with cholesterol, then read Anita Hirsch's Good Cholesterol, Bad Cholesterol -- it could well be life saving.

Average customer rating:

Very Enjoyable Reading

Bad Blood
P.M. Carlson
Manufacturer: Doubleday & Company, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Customer Reviews:

Very Enjoyable Reading.......2000-04-08

P.M. Carlson is always literate and witty. Her creation of Maggie Ryan is a fantasy creature, a sort of female Lord Peter Wimsey with an 1960's-70's touch. The first book in the series, _Audition for Murder_ showed us Maggie Ryan in college. This final book in the series has Maggie married and meeting for the first time the daughter she had to give up for adoption 16 years ago.

I like this novel because in addition to the mystery it has vivid, interesting characters, great dialogue and psychological insight. I enjoy the literary allusions and wordgames that are sprinkled throughout the Maggie Ryans series (and miss them in the author's Marty Hopkins series).

I am moved to write this review by the fact that the excellent Maggie Ryan series by P.M. Carlson seems to have gone out of print. I wish readers would seek out these books and inspire publishers to bring them back in print. It would be nice if P.M. Carlson would write more Maggie Ryan novels also.

Bad News for McEnroe: Blood, Sweat, and Backhands with John, Jimmy, Ilie, Ivan, Bjorn, and Vitas
Average customer rating:

Scaz Doesn't Fulfill The Promise of The Book

Whines as Much as McEnroe

Good News for Tennis Fans

Advantage Scanlon!

A good read, but accuracy problems

Bad News for McEnroe: Blood, Sweat, and Backhands with John, Jimmy, Ilie, Ivan, Bjorn, and Vitas
Bill Scanlon , Sonny Long , and Cathy Long
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Jimmy Connors Saved My Life: A Personal Biography

Break Point: The Secret Diary of a Pro Tennis Player

Tennis Confidential: Today's Greatest Players, Matches, and Controversies

The Player: The Autobiography

You Cannot Be Serious

ASIN: 0312332807
Release Date: 2004-07-29

Book Description

In the golden age of tennis, when players were just learning how to become media personalities, men like McEnroe, Connors, Borg and Lendl ruled the court . Now in a tell-all memoir, former top 10 seeded tennis star and chief McEnroe rival, Bill Scanlon, presents an unfettered look at the good old days of tennis when some of the most colorful (and infamous) players in history went head-to-head and the game was changed forever.Bad News For McEnroe is in part a revelation of the feud between McEnroe and the author that began when they were teenagers, but the essence of this book are the wonderful and surprising on- and off-the-court high jinks of such notable players as Vilas, Borg, McEnroe, Nastase and Connors, all of whom Scanlan played and knew intimately, from locker room fights to on-court breakdowns and blow-ups. A story that could not have come from anyone but a true insider, Scanlan's tale of life on the pro tennis circuit will shock and delight tennis fans everywhere.

Customer Reviews:

Scaz Doesn't Fulfill The Promise of The Book.......2006-01-14

When Bill Scanlon played on the professional circuit, he was a solid player. The only time you'd hear him mentioned in the same breath as McEnroe is on his book. The obvious animus he has for McEnroe is really uncalled for. It seems to be merely there to sell the book. Plus, the book is filled with factual inaccuracies--it was Vitas who said, "Nobody beat Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row." It was Barazutti's mark that Connors erased in the Open semifinals, not Vilas'. He has Connors turning to his box with Marjie Wallace and Gloria Connors, while Gloria was in Illinois.
Scaz is a tennis Forrest Gump who injects himself in situations in which he really wasn't a part of. The first 49 pages, though filled with inaccuracies, represent the best part of the book. After that, the reader wants Scaz to pee in the cup, for what he discusses sounds like drug-induced rantings.
He repeatedly says Connors had two bodyguards at the Open, when the two friends Connors had only appeared together with Connors at 2 Opens. But I guess Scaz needed to sell his book by exaggerating minor points like this. Unfortunately, sensationalizing trivial points subtracts from the overall book--for it begs the question what else is he embellishing?
After much ballyhoo, I expected more. This book is Bad News For Avid Tennis Fans.

Whines as Much as McEnroe.......2004-09-17

As an avid tennis player and reader I looked forward to his book. While I enjoyed watching McEnroe and enjoy his broadcasting ability, I can't say I'm much of a fan of his outsized ego. You'd think this book would therefore be much to my liking. Unfortunately, I only found this book mildly entertaining. There are a lot of subjects I liked but nothing that makes this a compelling exciting read for the average fan. Tennis aficionados may still want to read however.

After a brief background Scanlon supports his book title by attempting to hook the reader by blasting McEnroe's gamesmanship in their matches. But unlike Brad Gilbert's book with quality matches against McEnroe and Becker, Scanlon's case is weak as he RARELY beat McEnroe. It almost projects an image of envy spending so much time commenting on McEnroe and frankly, using it in the title to sell the book. Well, it worked in getting my money. OK, McEnroe's an @ss. Now let's move on. But he keeps coming back to it to where eventually it's pitiful.

The book really isn't about Mac other than in a tabloid manner. That's just an excuse to write a memoir about tennis in its greatest era. There is a very good chapter on the evolution of racquets and how that unnerved players who began with wooden racquets. Also, a chapter on fitness focusing on Navratilova and Lendl are quite interesting as well as a chapter on coaching and the evolution of the tennis entourage. But another dear subject to Scanlon which tends to lose the reader is the evolution of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals). Substantial time is spent here with a chapter on the controversial head Hamilton Jordan. Then we have a complete retelling of the battle inside the tennis establishment. This will be interesting only to people with interest in the business side of tennis.

Would I read this book again? Yes, but I love to read and love tennis. For the casual fan, I couldn't recommend this book. It covers subjects of interest to Scanlon but not in my opinion in a cohesive manner to entertain a casual fan. And, at the end of the day, I found the constant whining about the whiner McEnroe to be beneath the type book Scanlon was trying to write.

Good News for Tennis Fans.......2004-09-15

Bill Scanlon has brought back the good old days of great tennis. I was only unhappy that the book wasn't longer because with every chapter I found myself reminded of another great tournament or match between McEnroe and Connors or Borg or Lendl.

I found it interesting to learn some of the behind the scenes maneuvering in the politics of the game but far and away the most fun I had was reliving the rivalries between Borg and McEnroe and Connors and Lendl.

This book is written in a very fun way and I even get the impression that Scanlon has an underlying respect for John McEnroe and the contribution he made to the sport, even if the contribution was made in a way that caused fits for Scanlon and other players.

Definitely a fun read and highly recommended!

Advantage Scanlon!.......2004-09-01

This is an excellent book. The book is short and very well written. As a result, it reads as easily and quickly as just a few long articles from a tennis magazine. It is a lot more than just a rebuttal to McEnroe's book "You Can't Be Serious." McEnroe's book, although greatly entertaining was pretty much about McEnroe and not much more. Given whom McEnroe is, that still made for fascinating stuff. This book is not so much about Bill Scanlon, an extremely talented but unknown name outside tennis. Nor is it so much about McEnroe. It is much more about what Scanlon describes as the Golden Era of tennis (70s and 80s) in which he was privileged to participate.

Scanlon, in the shadows of the titans of the sport, had an incredible career that crossed paths with most of the superstars of the modern era. When he got started, he faced a mature Ilea Nastase (10 years his elder). Near his twilight, he faced the new teenage wonder - Andre Agassi. In between, he played against all the demi gods of the games, including Borg, Vilas, Connors, McEnroe, Gerulaitis, Lendl, and even the younger generation of near mythological characters: Becker, Edberg, Wilander.

This book is extremely insightful. The chapters about the fights for the control and governance of the game between the WTC, MIPTC, and the emerging ATP are fascinating. Some of these absurd fights culminated back in 1973, when 79 players boycotted Wimbledon, and Jan Kodes, an athletic East European better known for his clay court performances won Wimbledon due to a truly impoverished men's draw.

Chapter 4 on equipment is also very interesting. It discloses how in the late seventies and early eighties modern graphite racquets took the tennis world by storm. This caused a near crisis for most of the existing stars whose game had been developed with wood racquets. Scanlon shared that none of these stars adapted well to the change. And, this included both McEnroe and himself. The oversized stiffer racquets facilitated the modern power game that left touch players behind.

Scanlon noticed that while Nastase's tantrums affected his results, McEnroe's tantrums helped his. McEnroe's tantrums were well timed just to break an opponent's hot streak. More often than not, McEnroe's tantrum strategy worked. It allowed him to regain his footing in a match and beat his opponent. Thus, contrary to what McEnroe suggested in his own books, that is tantrums were outbursts of his own angered perfectionism; Scanlon suggests they represented an unfair strategy to beat opponents. I have little doubt that Scanlon is right. Thus, while McEnroe's theatrics were often hugely entertaining for the crowds, they must have represented a real pain in the neck for all his tennis opponents.

There is also a lot of entertaining stuff, including the exploits of Vitas Gerulaitis with the ladies. This is one aspect that both McEnroe and Scanlon books have in common. Both players/authors were quite awed by the amount of energy Vitas could exhibit on and off the tennis courts. Apparently, Vitas could easily handle a near sleepless night and win the Australian Open the next day. I am not so sure he could do that today. Marat Safin and Mark Phillippoussis are trying Vitas hedonistic route to success. But, so far they have frittered away their respective immense talent. And, they are both running out of time.

The book includes many more themes and topics equally interesting to the few I described above. If you like tennis, you'll love this book. I obviously have to also recommend McEnroe's "You cannot be serious." It is an excellent book too, even though it is narrower in scope than this one.

A good read, but accuracy problems.......2004-08-22

Bill Scanlon has a place in tennis history as the only player to win a set without the loss of a point in a tour event. He also was a nemesis of John McEnroe's, as much as Brad Gilbert ever was.

While providing a nice glimpse of the Borg-Connors-McEnroe era from the inside, Scanlon's book puts forth the theory that McEnroe's enmity toward him was based on a case of mistaken identify. Wow!

Unfortunately, as Scanlon asserts that McEnroe's memory is faulty, he raises credibility questions by revealing some memory problems of his own. This book is an extreme example of Walsh's Rule, which is that if you know anything about a subject, you'll find errors in just about any article or book on the topic.

Among Scanlon's dozens of errors are some doozies. He incorrectly recounts two anecdotes that are so well known it's almost a cliche to even mention them.

It was Connors, not Borg, who lost to Vitas Gerulaitis for the first time at the Masters, prompting Vitas to quip that nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis [number of losses plus one] times in a row. (In fact, Borg never lost to Gerulaitis on the pro tour.)

And it was Corrado Barazzutti, not Vilas, against whom Connors rubbed out a ball mark at Forest Hills.

I could go on. Scanlon misspells Lleyton Hewitt and Henri Leconte. His recollections about rackets are particularly error-filled.

Still, this is a book that hardcore tennis fans should read.

Bad Blood: Crisis in the American Red Cross

Average customer rating:

To tell the truth
Review from a Victim
Awsome!
Finally The Truth About Blood Transfusions!
overlooked

Bad Blood: Crisis in the American Red Cross
Judith Reitman
Manufacturer: Pinnacle
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Blood: An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce
Blood, Sweat And Tears: An Oral History of the American Red Cross

ASIN: 0786005084

Customer Reviews:

To tell the truth.......2005-10-27

There may be some truth in the statements contained in the book, at a time when HIV/AIDS was becoming a well known disease more than just the Red Cross was testing and supplying blood to hospitals, there are many blood banks that do the same thing as the Red Cross but they do it for a profit. However, it sells books to just state the Red Cross was the only one responsible for HIV/AIDS. The Red Cross does not make money on their blood supply. They charge hospitals for processing fees only to recoup the cost of the manufacturing, testing, processing, etc. of the blood it collects. It is the hospitals that are permited to collect the money, charge patients and insurances. Before criticizing the Red Cross, do some research yourself. FDA standards are met and exceeded for blood testing by the ARC.

Review from a Victim.......2005-01-12

I am the grandson of Robert Duane Jones. My grandfather received blood tainted with HIV and Hepatitis in the winter of 1989 from the bloodbank in Portland Oregon. He struggled on for more than a decade with this terrible disease, finally to succomb to it in January of 2002.

Grandpa made national headlines when he and my grandmother sued the Portland Division of the Red Cross in the nineties, which helped to bring about many of the changes that we see today. It was not that the Red Cross is a bad organization, it is that the Red Cross was never before held responsible or accountable for any of it's actions. This book helps to show, like any other book of its nature, the truth about an organization. I still continue to donate blood, and I donate to the Red Cross. The organization does great things around the world, but this book helps us to realize that all things may not be what they appear. Anyone interested in the history of HIV and transfusions should definately read this book, but like anything, you have too look at the whole picture and realize that no organization is without faults.

Awsome!.......2003-12-31

A young man wanted to donate blood to a Palo Alto Blood Bank but they rejected him for having a super low t-cell count. His blood was later accepted by a Red Cross facility and his bad blood caused a recipient to get AIDs.
This book is filled with similar horror stories as well as details about this one. The American Red Cross cut corners every chance possible and then fought like pitt balls to avoid taking any responsibility.
The Ford Pinto and Dalkon Shield two famous product liability cases left a black mark on corporate America but the irresponsibilty of The American Red Cross is a black mark against the cross and what it stands for.
A corporation that specializes in blood and relies on people's donations and uses the cross to engender peoples trust owes more then any car or iud maker.
They owe nothing short of their blood because the Christian cross symbolizes Christ's blood on the cross.
They sinned against God. The American Red Cross has been immortalized as one of the most greedy and ruthless corporations to ever exist!

Finally The Truth About Blood Transfusions!.......2003-12-01

This book tells the honest truth about blood transfusions that so many people overlook when they critcize someone for not taking one. The Blood industry is a multi-billion dollar industry and yes the Red Cross profitted incredibly! That is why it has wrongly educated doctors that people need blood transfusions. There are so many ways to use the skills physicians have to prevent and treat blood loss instead of blood transfusions but instead it is the easy way out. This book shows how many times blood is given when it is completely unnecessary. It shows the real dangers of blood transfusions and how many many people are suffering because of agreeing to receive blood. It's incredible how many diseases can be acquired through blood transfusions, even today. If anyone thinks that blood transfusions are safe today, they need to think again and read this book!

overlooked.......2003-10-20

The author of this book states her opion of the red cross and seems to find the people of wich were infected by hiv and aids and tell their stories but, did she forget the hundred of thousands this instituition helps every day with the blood porducts they collect. I wonder if she her self has ever donated blood.Lets not forget that the red cross is monitored very closly by both the CDC and the FDA. I encorage people to rent the movie "And the band played on" it explains alot about the aids epademic. and remember when you point a finger at someone(the red cross) you have 4 pointing back at youself.

Average customer rating:

Bad Blood (Crimson Moon Novels)
L. A. Banks
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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Release Date: 2008-04-01

BAD BLOOD: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

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BAD BLOOD: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment
James H. Jones
Manufacturer: Free Press
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Binding: Hardcover

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