Martin Lawrence Books

Yes, this is the book you need to understand acid-base. The secret is the easy to read and well structured approach. You will stop attending many lectures or workshops to understand acid-base.

I was given this book when I rotated through the ICU as a 3rd year medical student. I had gone through other training classes that attempted to teach me how to read a blood gas but I never could get it down right. THEN, I read this one...it put things into the proper perspective and taught me what I needed to know when I was reading a blood gas. I highly recommend it!

If you could only read one book on blood gasses this would have to be the one.

This book covers the nitty-gritty about Arterial blood gasses (ABG). As a PhD who performs biomedical research, I have come across "experts" who resort to physiological babble because they dont know what arterial saturation is really all about. You will if you read this book.

The book centers around four classic expresssions: (1) partial pressure of co2, (2) pH (3) alveolar gas equation, and (4) o2 content. From these four expressions, and a little knowledge of clinical medicine, you will understand just about everything you need to know about ABG. Dont let the equations scare you off; you know them already.

The book is simple to read, and has example problems. The real-world examples/problems really help in applying the knowledge, which I found to be quite useful. The author does not go into deep biochemical details. But if you need a good solid introduction to blood chemistry, or have to review how to read an ABG report this is a great book.

I am an RT instructor and I chose this book as a text book for my arterial blood gas analysis class. the students found it very difficult to understand and some of the formulas have been abreviated to the point that a novice will have trouble understanding them. This is a very good review for anyone who already has a general understanding of acid base, blood gas and electrolyte interpretation and can clear up some misconceptions, however, this book is not adequate for someone just learning the basics. My students were very unhappy and I wound up not using the text nearly as much as I had planned.

Gifford and Lee, seemingly well read about the Beats and Keoruac, are second only to Ann Charter's biographical work on Kerouac. The real sense of the'50's, the mentality, the hazards, and the activities of Burrows, Ginsberg,Jack and the boys are given a very thorough and entertaining once over. The scholarly merit isn't here, but the titilation and interesting skinny is.

Chock to bursting with recollections from Kerouac's intimates, this page-turner will be read in two or three sittings. These recollections are interspersed among the authors' own discoveries and conclusions. Not as exhaustive as "Memory Babe," this book is more for the person just getting into Kerouac's work and life. In the back of this book are lists of what has become of these acquaintances of Kerouac's and what their aliases were in his books, information which will become dearer to you as you delve deeper into Jack's Duluoz Legend. All in all, one terrific book worth anyone's time and money.

I love oral histories, and I Kerouac's alright. Its neat that the people responsible for this book collected and intereviewed some of Jack's friends from before he became famous. I was also unaware of his firt's marriages annulment and his involvment in hiding a body. There's a lot of great snippets... but there's also a lot of boring windbags blowing in this book too.

Still, its worth every penny.

Lawrence Freedman was written many important articles and books but _The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy_ is probably his best. He presents a comprehensive analysis of the development nuclear strategy from 1945 to the end of the Cold War. The book usefully explains a multitude of concepts such as second strike capabilities, massive retaliation, and selective options. Freedman gives added depth by covering nuclear strategy in China, Europe, and the Soviet Union.

One of the great strengths of this book is its objectivity. Most works on nuclear strategy focus on arguing whether nuclear war is still possible, how a nuclear war would be fought, or if mutually assured destruction is a stable and inevitable strategy. Freedman definitely questions the logic of strategies that aim to fight nuclear wars and favors mutually assured destruction. However, the text is devoid of rhetoric or argumentation that would cloud his historical analysis.

Some may criticize the book because it does not concentrate on certain issues relevant today, such as non-proliferation or nuclear terrorism. From the perspective of 2001, though, Freedman's work serves as a history of the major strategic discourse of the Cold War. In a way, his work serves as a the cap on fifty years of writings on nuclear strategy.

For students of strategy, _The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy_ is an essential read. In terms of comprehensiveness, objectivity, and good explanation, this book cannot be matched.

This is a book for extreme experts: academics, nuclear strategy buffs, and the occasional pundit in search of its peculiar logic. Forgive my naivete, but it also exemplifies why academia is viewed by so many as a boring world of, well, extreme experts of recondite trivia - even when it deals with the potential destruction of industrial civilization. In my view, this book utterly fails to cross over to the interested non-specialist or those who are not writing a dissertation but just want a good read. I never would have cracked this if it wasn't for work.

That being said, the book summarises an absoulutely enormous amount of scholarship and the thinking of the mysterious "wizards" who argued in little offices in the Pentagon for this type of bomb, that type of missile or artillery shell, and this type of treaty. Fortunately, a lot of this is now more history with the end of the Cold War and the arms race, but it still appears like a bizarre parallel universe of microeconomics applied to massiave destructive capabilites with a cold rationality and words like "deterrence" and "mutual assured destruction." Alas, very little of the political context or the human drama is covered in its quirky detail, so don't seek that here. The prose is clear, if a bit like a massive vanilla milkshake when you read it in one sitting (as I had to). I learned from this, but simply did not enjoy it past the first chapter or even the introduction. The achievement is inarguable, but this book is like a tough home work assignment in undergraduate school.

Recommended for academic purposes, but not for the interested layman.

I am always a little hesitant about relying on a science book that is 16 years old - so much can change. Apparently, Gaia is still an open issue, and even though there must have been developments since this book, it is still a fascinating look at the beginnings of the issue.

Joseph is sympathetic towards the Gaia theory, and obviously an admirer of Lovelock and Margulis, but he approaches the subject with some scepticism, explaining critical points of view and sometimes agreeing that theory is weak at points. Perhaps his attitude is best summed up by his dedication: " ... to James Lovelock, Lynn Margulis and everyone who gives them a good argument". He also mentions controversies that Lovelock has been involved in, such as his failure to support the banning of CFCs. I am somewhat relieved to realize that one of the reasons that I have never been too clear on the exact meaning of the theory is that Lovelock isn't entirely clear and has shifted over the years.

I've been doing some study of science history lately, and it strikes me that it is not as important whether or not Gaia is correct if it is fecund. If it gets researchers to look at the relationship of organism and their environment in new ways, to ask questions that they haven't previously thought of, then it will have been valuable, even if it is ultimately disproved. I will admit that a friend who is a geologist was rather distressed at my lackadaisical attitude.

Joseph also discusses the spritual aspects of the theory, e.g., how it is used by neo-pagans. He also relates to to historic religions and philosophies. I'm not sure if Lovelock, and particularly Margulis, are grateful for this, but it is interesting. My one complaint about the writing style is Joseph's tendency to use metaphors anthropomorphizing Gaia. This may be fine literary form, but it risks further confusing the reader on this somewhat vexed point.

The book includes extensive notes and an index.

I preface my review by acknowledging that it has been more than six years since I've read this book and regrettably, no longer have it in my posession. But it so enriched my view of the world, although I harbor only a lay person's curiosity about science, I feel compelled to share my memories of it.

In this book, Lawrence Joseph succeeds in revealing, without judgement, how the world of science can be as insular as any other. He explores the processes that eventually bring Lynn Margulies, the macrobiologist, and James Lovelock, the atmospheric scientist, together.

Their combined vision of a wholly interactive planet, of cause and effect endlessly mirrored through a timeless looking glass, is resisted by the scientific community. As authors of the Gaia Theory, they struggle with a revolutionary approach to viewing the interaction of the planet from both above and beneath the skin of the earth. For this, they endure the suspicion of other scientists from both disciplines who believe Margulies and Lovelock have sold out to the New Age concept of a holistic universe.

The reality of cause and affect, a notion readily accepted as common sense in the most pragmatic of circles, is resisted and often rejected straight out of hand by those with a protectionist view to science.

The struggle of Margulies and Lovelock, two creative-thinkers very different in their personalities as well as their areas of interest, provides an element of high drama. And their persistence in developing and expanding the Gaia Theory made for compelling, thought-provoking reading.

Gordon Bowker's Through the Dark Labyrinth is a biography of the British author, Lawrence Durrell. Like Durrell's other major biographer, Ian MacNiven, Bowker discusses the charge that Durrell committed incest with his daughter, Sappho. Like MacNiven, Bowker regards the charge as unproven. He points out that Sappho did not make a specific charge against her father in her journals concerning physical incest, but rather spoke there (and elsewhere)of "mental" or "psychological" incest. This does not mean that Bowker defends Durrell's mean-spirited and psychologically damaging behavior toward Sappho (and many others). But it does mean that Bowker--like MacNiven--refrains from sensationalistic accusations. Durrell's behavior toward his daughters, wives, lovers, and friends sheds a lot of light on the creation of his great, four-novel opus, The Alexandria Quartet, as well as on his other works, in particular his last giant work, the Avignon Quintet. In many of his novels, Durrell is obsessed with incest as well as death, time, and the relativity of knowledge. He thought truly great thoughts, and Bowker, like MacNiven, discusses them very well. It ought to be possible to separate Durrell's ideas and art from the less appealing aspects of his personality, just as we separate Wagner's great music from his proto-Nazi ideas. Bowker helps us do this, especially in regards to the charge of incest.

Gordon Bowker's biography of Durrell is an easy read and has plenty of references to Durrell's 'dark side' to satisfy the reader who is looking for pure entertainment. As an academic biography it is hindered by not being able to quote from Durrell's own works or from unpublished materials, since it was released very shortly before the more thorough official biography. Moreoever the attention to accuracy is not nearly as close as that of Ian MacNiven's work (the official biography), and Bowker has a tendency toward omitting important details which would alter to 'glamour' of the biography. One such point of difference is the allegations of incest which were posthumously levelled against Durrell and his daughter by the *publicist* for his deceased daughter's journals. Noteably, these journals do not contain this allegation and were being published in the wake of Nin's "Incest". Bowker treats these as fact, despite the problems involved, & does not reveal that the allegations were not made by the daughter nor that the 'friend' who made them had waited ten years before raising the issue (which surely helped publicity). Bowker's biography is fun and popular, but for accuracy, detail and literary merit Ian MacNiven's new biography "Lawrence Durrell; A Biography" is a far better value. Nonetheless, anyone interesting in Durrell's works would benefit from both. Feel free to email me to discuss this book.

Every militant who wants to fight for socialism, or put the fight for socialism back on the front burner, needs to read this book. Every radical who believes that society can be changed by just a few adjustments needs to read this book in order to understand the limits of such a position. Thus, it is necessary for any politically literate person of this new generation to go through the arguments of this classic of Marxist literature in order to understand the strategic perspective for socialism in the 21st century. Older militants can also benefit from a re-reading of this work. Except for the obvious change of names and organizations from those with while Lenin argued on my re-reading of this document I was astonished by the appropriateness of the arguments presented.

Militants of my generation, the Generation of `68, came late to an appreciation of the importance of this book and spent a lot of wasted time and energy on other strategies. Those so-called New Left theories that ran the gamut from mild social reform through vicarious guerilla warfare to revolutionary terror had, however, one common axis- denial of the centrality of the working class as the motor force for revolution, especially in the advanced capitalist countries. Once the most thoughtful of us came understand the bankruptcy of our previous strategies Lenin's little book became compulsory reading. Lenin's What Is To Be Done? thus takes it place as one of the basic documents of the revolutionary Marxist movement along with Marx and Engel's Communist Manifesto.

Although the book was written to address the disputes among socialists at the beginning of the 20th century the arguments presented have relevance today. And what are those arguments. There are three main points which are interrelated; the need for a fight against a reformist and for a revolutionary perspective to fight to the end for establishment of a socialist order; the need for a revolutionary organization of professional revolutionaries to lead the vanguard of the working class to socialism; and, the necessity for an independent vanguard both in its relationship to the working class as a whole and to other social classes. Although the political opponents that Lenin was polemizing against, and this document is a polemic, are long gone and his literary style would not be to today's taste these were and continue to be the defining issues of revolutionary strategy today.

After the experience of one hundred years of reformist socialist practice under capitalism it is hard to believe that the fight against such a limitation of the socialist program was a central argument that animated not only the Russian revolutionary movement but the international social democracy as well. The fight against revision of the Marxist program of class struggle and the need to fundamentally change the structure of society that began in that period seeped into the Russian movement as well. Thus, it was therefore necessary to polemize against this trend. Lenin, and others, rose to the occasion. Their argument, in short, was- Do you fight to the finish against the old social order or not? In Lenin's case we know the answer. Readers can decide for themselves whether he was right.

The controversy over kind of organization necessary to lead the masses to socialism has been present since at least the 1800's. The forms have varied over time from self-contained revolutionary conspiracies to revolutionary terrorist cells to mass reformist parties confined to the parliamentary struggle. Lenin brought a new concept to the organization question among Marxists not only for Russia but also after the seizure of power in the Communist International for international strategy. Simply put, if you do not want to make a revolution you do not need a vanguard party of professional revolutionaries. Moreover, these revolutionaries act as tribunes of the people fighting against all kinds of arbitrary action. If you do want to make a revolution, you need to address the organization question. The challenge is not to get caught up in the form. One thing is certain you cannot fight to the end against capitalism with a party that has two wings- reformist and revolutionary. Come the struggle for power and you have former comrades on different sides of the barricade. Study this question with care.

At that time Lenin wrote (1902) the question of what classes will lead the revolution and what forces will it rely on was a central question, especially in the Russian socialist movement. In the West at the time it was obvious that the working class was the central agency and that it would rely on the urban and rural petty bourgeoisies. In Russia, however, which had not experienced some form of bourgeois revolution, the central dispute did not get resolved until October 1917 when the Bolsheviks relying on the peasantry, and especially the declassed peasant soldier resolved the issue. The results, of that victory, as they say, are the subject for another discussion. What s noteworthy here is how skeptical Lenin was of the liberal bourgeoisie this early as any kind of ally in the revolutionary struggle. That skepticism should be a signpost for today's militants. No, this should be etched in every militant's brain. Ally with whoever you can over democratic issues (as long as you retain freedom of criticism) but you must in the current American reality break with the Democratic Party- party of the liberal bourgeoisie This is one of the political textbooks you need to read if you want to change the world. Read it.

"What Is to Be Done? Burning Questions of Our Movement" is one of V. I. Lenin's most important works. It lays out his strategy of revolutionary change. The Publisher's Note starts the book off, putting it in context (Page v): "In Lenin's concept a leading, a vanguard party could be only a party of revolutionary Marxism and this required at the outset a clear definition and rejection of opportunism."

This slender volume attempts to lay out an approach to revolutionary change. The key actor is the party, to serve as a vanguard for the masses, to make decisions in their name and in their interest. One function of the party is to accelerate the development of class consciousness among the Russian "have notes." Lenin observes that (page 78) "'Everyone agrees' that it is necessary to develop the political consciousness of the working class. The question is, how that this is to be done and what is required to do it." He responds to his own question (Page 79): "To bring political knowledge to the workers, the Social-Democrats must go among all classes of the population; they must dispatch units of their army in all directions."

This vanguard party would include professional revolutionaries and others, all bound together by the need to foment revolutionary fervor among the masses. In the process, vehicles such as the "'plan for an All-Russian newspaper '. . . is the most practical plan for immediate and all-round preparation of the uprising. . . ." He also identifies as enemies those who would urge slow, evolutionary change.

This is, in the end, Lenin's tactical textbook, his blueprint for revolutionary change. As such, it is an important historical and political document. Will readers be convinced by his logic? Many will not, but it is nonetheless important to understand his sense of what is needed to bring about a revolution.

90 Days with the Christian Classics is perfectly suited for once a day dosing! For each day there is a portion of the Bible connected to a passage from a Christian author of yesteryear. My only disappointment was some difficulty in identifying the sources cited for each authors. The lives of the authors cited spans over 1000 years, so these are words from history for our age! Pertinent biographical information on the authors is also included briefly. The editors have done well to anchor this work with substantial amounts of Bible excerts. The Bible, which is the best selling book of all time, is truly a treasured echo from history for our age! The hard padded book cover is magnificent and will serve well when readers bring it along on their travels.

The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Casey fans that day,

For their favorite ballad's history was fading fast away.

So when "Casey's Wife" was hard to find, and other poems were worse,

A pallor wreathed the features of the patrons of the verse.

A staggering few gave up the search, leaving there the rest,

With hope that springs eternal, within the human breast.

For they thought if only Gardner would take a careful look,

They'd put their hard-earned money down, if Gardner wrote a book.

But collecting all the parodies was too much work to do;

Mad Magazine had written one; and Grantland Rice wrote two.

And so the stricken multitude might never get to know 'em,

For there seemed but little chance of learning all about the poem.

But Dover publications has a Casey book to read,

With every bit of Casey lore that you will ever need.

To find these old forgotten poems, you need just take a look,

For Gardner, Martin Gardner, has compiled them in a book.

There is fun in Gardner's comments; there is wit from this old sage;

There are reams of careful research, and notes on every page.

So if you click the button, and wait a day or two,

There'll be Casey on your bookshelf, with all the others, too.

...

Oh, somewhere in these fabled lands, the sun is all too dim,

A band is silent somewhere, and somewhere hopes are slim,

And baseball lore is fading, and no one cares a bit,

But there is great joy in Mudville - Martin Gardner's scored a hit!

We enjoyed reading about the history of Oswegatchie. Several members of my wife's family can be traced back to this town. It was great to see that someone had taken the time to write about its history.

este libro es bueno aunque su final me parezca horrendo y termine defraudando al lector que espera quizas algo mas tragico. la novela se desarrolla bien y causo un estrago tremendo para la epoca ya que fue prohibida y su escritor fue clasificado como un pervertido. el libro trata sobre la liberacion a travesz de la pasion carnal. se deja leer y es una buena obra para empezar a leer a este autor aunque no es su mejor obra.