Nonfiction Book Reviews
Page Two of ThreeRed Flags, How to Know When You're Dating a Loser by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D., and Daniel A. Goldfarb, Ph.D.
Penguin, September 1999.Trade Paperback, 272 pages.
ISBN: 0452281172.
Ordering information:
Amazon.com.
This is the book that every mother wants to give to her
daughter, that every woman wants to give to her best
girlfriend and absolutely every woman wants to own.
Written by Dr. Gary Aumiller and his colleague, Dr.
Daniel A. Goldfarb, two authors who specialize in the
techniques used in detective work and law enforcement,
this book should be required reading for single women of all ages.
In order to spot the abuser, the rescuer or the leech the authors give a checklist that is very interesting. The checklist begins with family background, goes on to work/school history friendships, behavior, conversation and how he acts when confronted. Each characteristic is given a scoring number which can be compared to a total score. The checklists are rather extensive and should give a usable profile of a personality type.
Red Flags is a good book to sit down and read for one's general education in human nature, but its real value lies in having it for a reference book. One never knows. A promising new acquaintance might not pass the test, or then perhaps he will.
--Sarah Reaves White
Skies of Fury by Patricia Barnes-Svarney and Thomas E. Svarney
Touchstone, September 1999.Trade Paperback, 224 pages.
ISBN: 0684850001.
Ordering information:
Amazon.com.
Weather fans will adore this
treasure of weather facts,
information and
unusual trivia. Skies of Fury
covers exciting and unusual
weather conditions
such as tricks of light, weird
cloud formations, snowstorms,
thunderstorms, lightning,
winds, tornadoes, hurricanes
and space weather.
The book also covers lesser-known phenomena such as
fulgurites, microbursts,
gustnadoes, mountainadoes,
sandstorms, rogue waves
and solar storms.
Each section also includes
lists of unusual weather
phenomena, charts and weather records.
Some examples of these include
a list of billion-dollar U.S.
hurricanes, hot and cold records
(the highest temperature ever recorded
on earth was 136.4°F in the Sahara
Desert), a chart of the Fujita scale for
measuring the strength of tornadoes and
a list of drought records.
Top science writers Patricia Barnes-Svarney and Thomas E. Svarney have done an excellent job of collecting and organizing weather facts and unusual occurrences with easy to understand scientific explanations and terminology. Skies of Fury is a wonderful reference for weather fans and amateur meteorologists.
Nonfiction Reviews
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Return to the May 2000 issue of The IWJ.
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