W Books

The book contains all the information, resources to fix your credit. I contacted the author and he was was very happy to assist me during the proccess. Buying this book you can get all the tools you need to fix your credit; but not only that, if you contact the author he can even help you throught the procces dissregarding his busy schedule!

I was NOT thrilled with this book. It was recommended to me so I would be able to help a couple of friends of mine clean up their credit. The book doesn't read well. The only good thing was the CD however I could have gone online and downloaded the same forms. I'm sorry I wasted the money.

I have been putting taking care of this off for a long time. I found this book to be a life saver. I found my self taking notes and really getting some direction on this.

Facts are presented in a good way and I am already fixing my life. I suggest that for the price (which includes a CD too), pick this one up.

An awesone read and I have given a copy to several people who needed help.
I have received help and have helped others in money management and credit repair.

This book was very informative. It was very easy to read and understand. This is what I have been looking for to help me with credit problems. This is by far the best book on credit repair. I am looking forward to the next book.

This book has excellent information for anyone who is just diagnosed with asthma. If you have been living with asthma for awhile and have been active in the management of your asthma, you may find that there is very little "new" information contained in the book. You will find that the book contains a good description of the various treatments that may be prescribed by your doctor. Be that as it may, the book continues to be a good resource for anyone with asthma.

After a diagnosis of COPD and/or asthma, I did what I always do. I set out to learn as much as possible. This is a wonderful, comprehensive and hopeful book. I have checked much of the info with my pulmonary MD and he too was most impressed and is suggesting it to patients. It is written in understandable terms, with a fine resources section. I learned a lot, and felt a bit more in control of this disease. Because if you give in, it will "git ya". Well done!

Couldn't breathe. Bought this book. Showed my doctor who changed all my medications. That was six months ago. TODAY? I BREATHE so well that I'm training for the NY marathon. It's hard for me to believe that getting the RIGHT medication can be crucial for allergy and asthma. But I'm a believer.

I have had allergies since birth--and never have felt good until I did the things written in this book. An excellent book on why allergies happen and what you can do--today--to stop them. I took the book to my doctor and she changed my medication to include steroid nasal inhalers. This helped me go through two pollen seasons without missing any work. SUPERB!!

I have sinusitis and asthma, and my children have the same. We have suffered for too many years according to this book. It enlightened me to learn that my sinus drainage actually triggers asthma--thus, I have learned to stay on top of sinus infections and post nasal drip--to END ASTHMA. It works. Dr. Smolley is brilliant. The book is a must read for any parent or person with allergies, asthma, sinusitis or other lung disease. Read it--and do what he says--it will change your life the way it has ours.

My son recently started preschool and I remembered I loved this book as a child. I particularly remember how vibrant the pictures were and how my imagination ran wild with them. It was a great way to prepare him for his first day of school and one we continue to read over and over and over! A definate classic!

Book shows that Sister is nervous about starting kindergarten. She meets the teacher Mrs. Honey before school starts. First she is nervous but soon she starts to relax and enjoy herself and have fun. I love the part where she holds another kindergartener's hand on the bus. So often little kids only think of themselves and not others.

this book is ok .One reason is because it shows you not to judge things you haven,t tried.Another is If people dont trie something then help them do it.This is what i think of this book.

I really loved this book as a kid because I loved all the illustrations and I loved kindergarten as well. I was volunteering at a kindergarten class one time and read this book to the kids and they loved it and were so happy for some reason when I told them I have the book at home too :) It's a good book to prepare your child for daycare, preschool or kindergarten if they're having anxiety about going.

If you're looking for a book to introduce your child to what happens at school, then look no further. Sister Bear will be going to school for the first time in this book and in preparation, Mama takes her to see her kindergarten teacher for lunch. She has a wonderful time and then brother takes her to school with him and helps her get on the bus. Sister is kind and holds the hand of another little bear who seems very afraid and they go into class together. That part was really sweet! This book does a wonderful job in teaching children what school is about and what to expect. If Brother and Sister can do it, then we can too! This is a great hit at our house and I highly recommend it!

There are many ways to produce change in a persons life. But when change does occur, do we know how we produced it? Many times we do not. That's where books like this come into play. It is a very dense book, so if you are not ready for a deep inmersion into the theories behind strategic therapy, you need not apply. Highly recommended for those interested in Watzlawick's other books.

Overall, the book is a bit dry at times, but if you can read, knowing that you will stumble upon a real diamond from time to time, it's a book well worth reading.

This is a great book on the mind. It shows us that we don't really need to know the mechanisms of things to make it work. Just like we don't have to know how a car works in order to drive it. The mind is the same way. Never mind the mechanisms it involves but if you do this and this, a person will do this and this. And surprisingly, although most of the suggestions are counterintuitive, most of the things discussed in the book actually work when we try it out on others. Try it and you will see! If you want to know why these things work, I'd suggest you read "The Ever-Transcending Spirit" by Toru Sato. It is a very insightful book about relationships and consciousness. If you get the message, you will know why the things suggested in Watzlawick's books actually work. Happy reading!

Change is the ultimate illusion; nothing ever changes. The cover picture tells it all: is it night or day, earth or sky, field or bird, culture or nature? Illustrations of illusions. The only thing we can hope for is some enlightment regarding a different way to look at our perceptions of change. This book offer that: a short cut to the paradoxes of change.

I first read this book in 1977 after hearing John Weakland speak at my medical school. I read it because even though I was in residency training to be a psychiatrist, I had no clue as to what he was talking about for over an hour. After reading it, I went to a week long seminar conducted by the three authors in Palo Alto, California. My understanding of what behavioral science should be about (but wasn't) was so profoundly changed that I could not do well at making a living in my chosen profession, because my patients recovered from their problems at such a rate that I could not find enough to treat. I had to go back to more traditional forms of psychiatry which were extremely ineffective, but allowed me to drive a very nice car.

The advent of HMOs drove me completely out of practice which is quite paradoxical since they like the idea of short term therapy. I guess the problem may come from the solution they seek which frequently has nothing to do with a positive outcome for anyone but the administrators of the HMO.

So unless you want your status quo in upheaval, don't buy this book.

I read this book as a young teenager and remembered being very captivated by it. However I recently went back and re-read it as a woman in my late twenties and was more than a little disappointed. While the plot and characters themselves are very imaginative and interesting, Hardy's writing style is amateurish and too twentieth century for the time period of the book. Also Deirdre's brattish personality just grated on me after a while. I kept expecting her to grow up more, but she still retained that irritating flavor of immaturity even into the last book. In all fairness I had just finished reading some great literary classics such as The Lord of The Rings and Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, so perhaps it is not fair of me to hold up Hardy's books in comparison to those works of art. However, someone reading all the other glowing reviews (I could not believe that every single one gave it FIVE stars) might be rather misled. This book and its sequels are NOT great literature. Interesting, creative maybe, but not true literary art. I would recommend this as a good starter book for young teenage girls. However as adults I would encourage them to move on to better, more sophisticated writing.

I read this book when it was first published back the the mid-eighties. The story had a profound influence on my life as a young teenager, and continues to thrill me as a "thirtysomething" adult. It has influenced my imagination in the way that I write. I enjoyed the medieval settings. The story is beautifully written, and the characters come alive on the page. Once you think you have this story figured out, twists you never even thought possible are thrown at you, which I like. I hate feeling like the author is insulting my intelligence. The story has a beautiful message, and I have loaned this book out to many readers. I have yet to find one disappointed reader. The saga continues in 2 more books, followed by an additional series that takes place 100 years later. You HAVE to read this book!!

I first read this book back in high school. It was a favorite then. My little sister fell in love with the series too and somehow years later we could not find the actual books - go figure. This is a terrific series by an author who has tremendous imagination and gives her characters depth that allows you to connect with them. Thoroughly enjoyed getting reacquainted with Robin Hardy.

Almost 5 years ago, I picked up Chataine's Guardian. It was one of many books a friend had given me to sell at a yard sale I was having. I loved books, and it looked interesting, so I read it, and sold the rest of the books she had given me. I couldn't put it down! I got the next two books, and read almost all the streiker series books. My cousin began reading them, and we were hooked! Robin's books have become very familiar to me, and every time I read them, I get so wrapped up in them!
Robin's books have encouraged my cousin and me to continue in our own writing endeavors, and remind us that it's God that gives us the ability to do so. Her books are more than just stories to me--they're revelations of her heart, and encouragements to all who read them.

When young Chataine (princess) Deidre is given a guardian to look after her, she starts out as a stubborn brat. But with help from Roman, her guardian, she grows to a new maturity, as well as an awareness of how important she is to the survival of her country of Lystra. With the Surchantains' (kings) sons' all asking for her hand in marriage, Deidre will have to make a difficult decision that will effect her life in more ways than one.

A leader at my girl's group gave all of us a copy of this book. When I first got it I wasn't sure I'd like it but by the second chapter I loved it- and by the fifth chapter the house could have buned down around me and I wouldn't have noticed. The next week, the other girls and I discussed it with our leader and we all said the same thing- it was an amazing book.

I am not much for poetry in general (having been forced to determine feet and meter and memorize types of sonnets, etc...), but Service's poetry is simple, amazingly clear, and beautiful. His descriptions of the Northern Lights and the wonders of the North are worth the price of the book just in of themselves.

Exactly what I was looking for for my husband. I think it has everything Robert Service ever wrote and is fabulous.

Exactly what I was looking for for my husband. I think it has everything Robert Service ever wrote and is fabulous.

I hunted far and wide to find this particular volume of poetry by Robert Service. Robert Service is without any doubt my favorite poet. His poems are classics. But many years past when I was just a youth, I stumbled onto a volume of Robert Service where he wrote short prose introductions to his poems. Hoping one day to become a poet myself, I thought these prose introductions provided the greatest insight to how a poet creates. I looked and looked and looked but could never find that volume. Then one day in a second hand book shop some where I found it. It was this volume. I paid a good price for it. I've recorded all these poems with the prose intros on my karaoke and I play them for myself sometimes at bed time. My wife has her "ears" on her burrow (she's hard of hearing) so she is not disturbed. In my opinion Robert is the epitome of fine poetry. He has it all humor, pathos, romance, intellectual content, melody, beauty, intensity, warmth, toughness, manliness - you name it; he's got it. Buy this volume you will not regret it.

As pointed out by a couple of other reviewers, Robert Service's work has been rather putdown over the years by the elitist and, indeed, still is. That is just fine by me. The only problem here is that because of this "looking down upon attitude" many, who like to associate with such people may not read Service's work for that reason. That is a shame because they are missing some great poetry and a whole group of fun. Recently, the "cow boy poets" in our country are making a come back and rightfully so. These "unsophisticated" poems reflect our culture, tell a story and are simply good. Service falls withing this genre. I enjoy poetry in most forms and I certainly would feel much poorer for not having read this author's work. Service tells simple stories with simple words, that are to the point and few frills. There is little pretentiousness here. These are stories from our past and need to be treasured. Recommend this work highly.

This is a thorough and well-written biography of Charles Darwin, with emphasis on the torment he suffered as his theory of evolution caused upheaval in the Church and in his own beliefs. Darwin suffered from a debilitating illness (gastro-intestinal in nature) almost his entire adult life. He was also a very emotional man--tears came easily to him. These are just a few of the things I found interesting about this biography. Where his theory might be questionable, however, is not discussed. Highly recommended.

This is one hell of a riveting biography. I've often read biographies of really interesting people, but the writing is so turgid or lackluster, that I find myself wishing a better writer would tackle this story and do it right. Not so with this one, this is a phenomenal book.

Darwin: the life of a tormented evolutionist, the title says it all. Desmond and Moore work around the idea of the tormented evolutionist as a central theme in this magnus opus of Darwins life. The reader is taken on a journey through Darwin as a young lad, collecting shells and minerals, to the debilitated, ailing old man who writes non-stop on many aspects of natural history from selection to a complete and still used encyclopedia on barnacles to orchids and earthworms. But this is not an essay merely about the life and accomplishments of Charles Darwin, it is a story about science and society in the 1800's England. Desmond and Moore create a scene of Darwin getting swept up in the events of Victorian England. They illustrate a man torn by his religious convictions and the interpretations of what all the evidence from his life's research points toward. I relished in getting to know other famous scientists such as Hooker, Wallace, Romanes, Spencer, Tyndall and Huxley, and many others from that time who were among Darwin's followers and critics (i.e. Owen, Agassiz, Duke of Argylle, Mivart, Wilberforce)

A highly enjoyable book for people from all backgrounds and an absolute must read for anyone not so much interested in the complete biography of Darwin's life, but for people interested in the history and philosophy of Victorian England's science.

This is a really first class biography, bringing the full weight of Charles Darwin's "torment" to light. As a devoutly religious man during the oppressively Christian Victorian era, it took uncommon fortitude and intellectual honesty for him to follow the paths down which his researches led him, all the way to the ultimate conclusions which today bear his name.

Much like H.W. Brands's biography of Benjamin Franklin, the authors here do an excellent job of bringing Darwin back to life, both the highs and the lows (including lots of personal tragedy) that shaped his monumental career. Heartbreak played as great a role in his life as discovery.

Compulsively readable without sacrificing detail, all of the major milestones of his life are covered in a personal perspective which gives exactly as much emphasis as events must have had at the time -- even ones which have since reached mythic proportions. This is, as Steven Jay Gould touts on the cover, "Unquestionably, the finest [biography] ever written about Darwin..."

I just completed my second reading of this work. I do feel it is one of the better Darwin biographies. It certainly is not in the same league with Janet Browne's two volume work, but if you cannot get Browne, then this one will certainly do. This work is well researched and certainly presents us with a good look at not only Darwin the man, but of his science. I had to agree with another reviewer who made the observation that reading Charles Darwin's work is much easier after reading this work on his life and times. I also enjoyed the insightful look into the Victorian mind...it was an added bonus. Unfortunately, I have noticed that the anti-evolution folks go through these reviews bashing anything said positive about any of the Darwin Biographies. The study of the man, Darwin, is not necessarily an endorsement of his theory. On the other hand, Darwin and his contemporaries did change the way we look at our world and we do owe them a debt for that, and anyone that can produce such a profound work, indeed, needs to be studied. Any one who denies this simply has their head in the sand. Highly recommend this one. Good biography and good history. Well written!

HAHA guys

What is this........... eh, not quite sure, but, slipped so easily into the unknown without PREJUDICE, completely into the author's syntax, thoughts and, yes, dreams.

This author waved to the onlookers as he descended to the hard, craggy Mississippi Rocks that he LOVED. Not a particular story many people in the press want to hold above THE LAUREATES and Fakes that permeate our Poetry industry. A truly strange trip through the head of an albatross in flight....

I love ROCKS.

the main point of criticism of this poem is its hyper-personal self-referential content. i have to say, however, that i have never felt so comforted, so saddened nor so delighted by any work of art or literature or film as i have by these songs no matter how little i know about what he really means or is talking about. i don't even want to know the specifics or the origins behind every line.
this is the most jarring and successful work of experimental anything i've ever encountered in my life. berryman had such a command of language; vernacular, colloqialisms, meter, form, internal rhyme, schizo pronoun shifts, multiplicity, this masterpiece has it all. 'the dream songs' take language and poetry to its limits and does so succinctly, with meter and rigid sonnet form berryman devised for the work.
the fact that the beats overshadow people like berryman and john barth and william carlos williams is simply a crime. i honestly feel that this work surpasses 'leaves of grass' and is probably the most amazing achievement in american poetry.
this is not to say that i think berryman is america's finest poet (more than likely our most erudite, but not our finest). on the contrary, i think he was a marginal writer who caught fire like no one ever has. this is what art is; one person's fractured assemblege of all the shattered pieces of everything in an epic confession where he is in fact three people and is killed and raises from the dead and cheats and lies and is mistreated and is wrong, all in heroic fashion. to want to know where it all came from is wrong and selfish and diminishes the work. to be consoled or bored or outraged is what must be done.
i re-read this beast about once a year, last time through 191 was probably my favorite. like all masterpieces, you appreciate something different every time.
buy this book, steal it, whatever you have to do.

At first, I didn't find much to rejoice about in this collection of poems. The expectation Berryman sets up with his title is deceptive. I found little evidence of "dream." What I mean is that I found this writing highly literal, straight-forward and self-conscious, i.e. the antithesis of dreamy. Secondly, "songs" troubled me. One of the thing that distinguishes poetry from prose is poetry's musicality. And having "songs" in the title of a collection hints that there may be lyricism within. However, I found the diction flabby, the tone impotent and therefore lacking any semblance of lyricism. Perhaps what Berryman meant by "songs" is this: Perhaps these poems are loose ballads (without the envoi and without the predicable rhyming scheme). Ballades address an important person (Henry, in this case) and sums up the point of the poems.

It's terrible to sum-up a collection of poems (or is The Dream Songs considered one poem in parts?), but here goes: Basically, in each section we have the protagonist, Henry, in various situations, or in mere contemplation. The forward for this book is interesting in that, along the lines of Pound and Eliot, Berryman has made a concerted effort to inform his readership that this is, indeed, a persona poem, and therefore, not to be confused with a biographical poem. Perhaps what Berryman has produced here is an eclogue. An eclogue is a poem "written in the form of a monologue or dialogue in which the speaker tells us what he feels about a particular theme (and why) and why others ought to feel that same way (from Handbook of Poetic Forms)." When I approach these poems as bucolics (or, eclogues), Berryman's craft and the poems' meanings open up for me. Otherwise, these seem banally idea-driven and terribly discursive in that they're sometimes laden with private references. For example, the opening few lines: "Huffy Henry hid the day,/ unappeasable Henry sulked./ I see his point,-- a trying to put things over."

The best way to enter these poems, then, is to embrace Berryman's eclogues as a means to engaging with the main character, Henry. Because these poems are character-driven, the language is conversational, idiosyncratic, and at times, pedestrian (like how most of us are just plain boring in our impromptu conversations). In this sense, these poems have an immediacy to them; the reader can almost hear Henry's diatribes straight from his mouth. However, Henry is not without pithy insight. In part #28 Henry displays his humor and resign: "If I had to do the whole thing over again/ I wouldn't." At times these sections begin with such intrigue, they reel-in the reader. Part #44 begins: "Tell it to the forest fire, tell it to the moon." And at times, the readers are reminded of the fact that Henry's merely a character in Berryman's head. These last two lines of part #74, "Henry mastered, Henry/ tasting all the secret bits of life." And that's just what we get from these Dream Songs, bits of a Berryman character in all his intricacies, both commonplace and celebratory.

I am not very knowledgable about Berryman and his work. I certainly have not read the poems with the time and intensity of a number of the reviewers on this site. I have an impression of Berryman and his work. It is of something vaguely likeable occaisionally able to provide a line which hits home. It is of a very variable voice in which the disorder and the breakdown somehow make the text too mixed- up.
Perhaps this is unfair. Bellow thought Berryman the best, and among other poets he too was understood as one of the best of his time.
Perhaps then I should let his lines , lines of one sonnet at least speak for themselves:

These lovely motions of the air, the breeze,
tell me I'm not in hell, thojugh round me the dead
lie in their limp postures
dramatizing the dreadful word 'instead'
for lively Henry, fit for debaucheries
and bird- of- paradise vestures

only his heart is elsewhere , down with them
& down with Delmore specially, the new ghost
haunting Henry most:
though fierce the claims of others, coimedela crime
came the Hebrew spectre , on a note of woe
and Join me O.

'Down with them all!'Henry suddenly cried
Their deaths were theirs. I wait on for my own,
I dare say it won't be long,
I have tried to be them, god knows I have tried,
but they are past it all, I have not done,
which brings me to the end of this song.

Berryman's dream song sequence demonstrates how to create a series of related poems, without rigid constraints beyond trying to maintain a certain length. Some are self-standing like #28 "Snow Line" while others require some knowledge of the series characters Henry and Mr. Bones. Everything seems topical: relationships, politics, writers, and even the everyday. Berryman frequently inverts syntax for striking effects. Most of the dream songs make a strange statement and build off of it such as "Life, Friends, is boring. We must not say so." (#14) or "Bats have no bankers and they do not drink." (#63) I admire the scope of topics such as work, love, and writing that are still relevant today and the seemingly matter-of-fact way Berryman writes, which often produces hilarious results, such as the case of the two previously mentioned poems. In one of the later songs he even takes on himself "The only happy people in the world/ are those who do not have to write long poems." (#354) The Dream Songs are crucial for anyone interested in 20th and even Contemporary Literature.

For me this was an amazing discovery. I read a review of it in a literary magazine in the waiting room of my optician and when I got home I immediately ordered it from Amazon.
What caught my eye in the review were the names of the inhabitants of the February House - Auden, Britten,McCullers... in that amazing year. I knew of their work individually but to read of them living under the same roof was a revelation.What a cauldron of creativity! All against the background of the war in Europe and the period leading up to Pearl Harbour.As I read the book I felt as though I were there. I hope that someone will make a documentary about it or better still a dramatised reconstruction. The two Truman Capote films have blazed the trail.

A friend just recommended this book to me and it's fabulous!!! I live in an artist bldg and it's nothing compared to the energy of Middagh Street. The book is a great read and the research is most impressive. I cannot wait to read the one she's writing about the Chelsea Hotel!

Thomas Wolf once famously said "only the dead know Brooklyn." There might be some truth in that, but some of us know Brooklyn, N.Y.,U.S.A., pretty well,and are still very much alive. Quite a few people are aware of Brooklyn's brownstone belt, that swath of historic houses stretching from the East River to Prospect Park and beyond. Many of these people would declare Brooklyn Heights the ultimate Brooklyn brownstone neighborhood. It's beautiful, and gets scenic views of Manhattan. It's got history galore--an important Revolutionary War battle was fought here;and it's been, and still is,home to a lot of well-known important people.

One little-known fact is that a number of celebrated people shared a house on Middagh Street, in 1940-41, right in the middle of the Second World War. That house, which came to be known as February House-- a number of its residents had February birthdays-- has long since been torn down to make room for the Promenade that provides storied views of Manhattan. But among occupants of February House were poet W.H.Auden, writer Carson McCullers, writers Jane and Paul Bowles,composer Benjamin Britten, and stripper Gypsy Rose Lee.

Writer Sherill Tippens has produced an interesting, pleasantly gossipy book about the house's residents and their accomplishments. Jane Bowles began "Two Serious Ladies," her only completed novel here. The young lesbian Carson McCullers had just tasted, at the age of 23, great success with her novel "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter." She began two other great successes, "The Member of the Wedding," and "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe," between drinking bouts, right here on Middagh Street.

Auden and Britten, both homosexual, but not involved with each other, were being raked over the coals at the time by the British press for choosing to sit out World War II in the U.S. But they were working: they collaborated on the opera "Paul Bunyan,"not critically well-received. Auden who continued to live in the Heights, on his own, to pursue his lifelong, unrequited love for the young American Chester Kallman, was working hard in the interstices of his personal soap opera: He produced "The Double Man" in February House. Britten produced "Peter Grimes;"considered one of the great masterpieces of 20th century opera. Meanwhile, he pursued his own personal soap opera: many critics believe this opera echoes developments with his partner, tenor Peter Pears, at the time.

The most unexpected resident of February House would have to be Gypsy Rose Lee, burlesque artiste. She was talked into joining the fun by George Davis, homosexual himself, fiction editor of "Harpers Bazaar" magazine, whose idea February House was, and who worked hard to keep it alive. Davis had published some of his own writing, but he was best known for the talented writers he kept on discovering.

In Gypsy Lee's case, she brought some money, a lot of common sense,and a cook to Middagh Street. The house's residents needed all the above. Her reward for her support: George Davis, great editor, midwifed her book, "The G-String Murders," a publishing sensation for many years.

George Davis continued to live at 7 Middaagh Street after its time as an artistic commune had passed. After Kurt Weill's death, Davis married his widow, Lotte Lenya, and devoted his life to introducing America to Weill's great works,such as "Three Penny Opera,"from which we get "Mack the Knife."

There are some informative photographs, extensive notes and acknowledgements in February House. Tippins evidently did a lot of primary research, but she managed to organize the voluminous results in a very readable style. February House well rewards the reader.

Sherill Tippins has done an amazing job of finding the significant narrative threads in the chaotic convergence of creative lives that occurred in the months before Pearl Harbor when Harper's Bazaar editor George Davis and British expatriate poet W.H. Auden rented a brownstone on 7 Middagh Street in Brooklyn Heights and actively recruited other creative artists to live with them. Among the co-renters were Carson McCullers who had recently published her highly acclaimed first novel, "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter," soon-to-be famous British composer Benjamin Britten and his parnter, singer Peter Pears, unpublished novelists Paul and Jane Bowles, Broadway set designer Oliver Smith, writer Richard Wright and his wife, and burlesque sensation Gypsy Rose Lee, who it turns out was the most reliable in the rent-paying department and joined the little "creative commune" on the condition that she could bring her own cook and maid. Her fiscal reliability and drive along with Auden's willingness to take on the unpleasant role of house disciplinarian (collecting rent and other "dues" and establishing and enforcing many house rules) are probably sufficient explanation for why this menage managed to last the two or three years it did.

Tippins wisely focuses her attention on the leading figures (without neglecting to name the many others who partied but did not reside at 7 Middagh--Salvador and Gala Dali, Lincoln Kirstein, George Balanchine, Erika Mann and her brothers Klaus and Golo, to name a few). One passer-through, Anais Nin, christened the dwelling "February House" because so many of the residents had February birthdays. Tippins has a good knowledge of the works of these creative people and is able to see how one of the artists intentionally or inadvertantly influenced a subsequent work of one of his or her co-residents. For example, McCullers was struggling with the novel that would later become "The Member of the Wedding" when she was able to appropriate an experience from Chester Kallman's childhood to explain her heroine's profound sense of alienation and abandonment (Kallman was Auden's lover).

Tippins other great achievement here was her ability to slice through history and palpably recreate the political atmosphere in pre-war New York and to do so in a way that reflects on both British and US perspectives. She takes a good hard look at the criticism expatriates like Auden, Christopher Isherwood, Britten, and Pears faced from the British press and fellow artists who chose to remain in Great Britian during the war. She is similarly insightful in her analysis of the role the Mann family had in trying to get an apathetic America to respond to the European crisis. A lesser writer might not have bothered with these issues and chosen to report only the salacious and saleable anecdotes about the goings-on of the February House residents.

I highly recommend this book to anyone even passingly interested in one of the artists who lived at 7 Middagh Street (you're sure to learn something new), to anyone who ever wondered how great works of art come about, or to anyone interested in knowing how history and art intersect. I'm sure I'm going to use Tippins's Selecte Bibliography as a basis for future Amazon.com purchases.

Sherill Tippins' volume fills a tantalizing gap that fans of Auden, McCullers, Britten, and Gypsy Rose Lee have long wished could be filled. Most overdue is Tippins' portrait of George Davis: failed literary wunderkind; editor extraordinaire (who "discovered" McCullers and got much-needed writing jobs for her and W. H. Auden in the lean months before Pearl Harbor); husband to Lotte Lenya and the catalyst that re-invented her for American audiences in Marc Blitzstein's staging of Weill's "Threepenny Opera"--the list goes on and on. Davis and Auden are central to Tippins' account and to the amazing colony of artists who called 7 Middagh Street in Brooklyn Heights their home in 1940-41. But Tippins gives everyone in that circle his/her due. Her depictions of Auden's rocky romance with Chester Kallman, of Benjamin Britten's coming to terms with his artistic destiny in England, not America, and Gypsy Rose Lee's ability to charm and disarm everyone she met are more than engaging--they are extremely moving.

Tippins' research is exhaustive and impeccable, and she lets her characters speak naturally and eloquently. I could not put this book down and practically read it at one sitting. I was hungry for the kind of information Tippins delivered, and I finished the book with the deepest satisfaction. Gracefully written, carefully organized and researched, and extremely relevant: this book wins on all counts.

Rooted in both vigor and simplicity, this chemistry text will amaze you. Pauling is very mindful of how the student ought to recieve information and in that he carefully picks the order of topics. Too often people disreguard the importance of the presentation of information. It's a shame because they are being willfully ignorant to techniques that catalyze and promote learning. Our brains are more responsive to associative learning because biologically that's what goes on in neural circuitry. Anyways, it's best I don't spur off into a tangent. Buy this book. It taught me chemistry.

Nothing to say about this well known book as a hi level introduction to general chemistry.
What it's amazing is to buy such new book at such price !

This book will never look old. Its still much more clear than many (college) chemistry books. In my opinion this volume should be suggested as a reference for a general chemistry college course.

This is an interesting, if somewhat dated and eccentric textbook by the man who was probably the leading chemist of the twentieth century. It is full of interesting insight, and written with real flair, so much unlike the typical textbook today produced by the textbook publishing machines.

Let me give a couple of examples, good and bad, of what makes this book interesting, but also exasperating.

The book is the only freshman chemistry text I know of that has a derivation of the Boltzmann distribution P ~ e^(-E/kT), a very basic relation in the kinetic theory of gases and in fact in all of statistical physics. The derivation is simpler than most, which makes it a real jewel especially at this level, where most people would think it doesn't belong.

On the other hand, the section on chemical bonding, which is actually where Pauling made his reputation, is very eccentric, like the author, so much so that it makes the book unsuitable as the sole text for a course. It is all based on sp3 hybrid orbitals. As far as I can tell, sp2 and sp hybrids are never mentioned. With the sp3 story, Pauling is able to account surprisingly well for some systematics of bond lengths. Whether this is fortuitous or not, I don't know, but it is interesting. On the other hand, without sp2 and sp hybrids, he is completely unable to give the standard, very simple, beautiful account of bond angles. A student learning introductory chemistry from this text who then went into organic chemistry would soon be at a disadvantage without knowing the theory of hybrid orbitals that everyone else would get from any of the standard contemporary texts.

My recommendation: use this text as a very insightful, quirky supplement. The price is certainly right.

The text that comes closest, in my opinion, in seriousness, if not eccentricity, is the contemporary text by Oxtoby and coauthors. It is too highbrow though for most college introductory chemistry courses.

This is by far the best introductory book I have seen so far. It is very concise and thorough. There are no flashy pictures or cool sidenotes with the practical applications of the concepts. But the basic concepts are very well explained with lots of helpful diagrams. Also, the price of the book is very good. Hooray for Dover Publications for publishing this masterpiece as such reasonable price!