Reviews Books

Everyone must read this book. It is unique in every way. Believe me you have never read anything like this!

I have to admit, at first i thought i would never finish it. For me a book that was that long was impossible. this book was incredible, it broadened my view of possibilities. It is a very touching story. It is very unique and anyone can enjoy it. You must read it!

This is a great story based on a powerful character, Ulysses, who tries to get away from Buenos Aires and from his miserable life.

Well written and with an edgy sense of humor, you don't just read "Beer cans..." You get nicely drunk with it! Enjoy it!

This is a great story based on a powerful character, Ulysses, who tries to get away from Buenos Aires and from his miserable life.

Well written and with an edgy sense of humor, you don't just read "Beer cans..." You get nicely drunk with it! Enjoy it!

Well, behavioral science is the most important yet difficult part to masterize in the USMLE step 1. That's why a great teacher ( at least they say so ) like B. Fadem thinking of all the world's students, wrote this book.
You cannot ask for more. Written in an enjoyable manner, with high yield facts, review questions on Each Chapter, and a final review exam, concepts definitely get into your hard disk ( or you will have to see your neurologist ). It's a masterpiece worth a place in your shelf, and of course, it's price is insignificant for what you will get.

Great outline review of all the parts that fit under the rubric of 'Behavioral Science' according to the NBME. Prepared me well for the NBME exam, and was a good review tool for class exams in Psychiatry. Highly recommended! Fadem is a great teacher too!

You really need this book for Usmle as well as med school.Indispensable A book you will refer to over and over again

I used this book for my clinical neuro class and it was excellent! It even has some epidemiology and statistics. It's all I used to study for this subject on step 1!

The Blessings of Hard-Used Angels is an enjoyable and rewarding collection of short fiction. John Cottle's stories are fresh with unique, sometimes off-beat, but always-believable characters. I have no qualms in comparing his approach to development with that of more well known Southern writers in an extremely favorable manner. I would then erase the Southern writer categorization, not wanting to represent the collection as anything other than great stories and excellent writing. Annie McGill, my selection for one of the better stories in any collection, is subtle but unrelenting as it delves into and renders an attorney's emotional response to a quandry. Simple enough, short, but accomplished in such a manner as to create a picture far more intricate than its length might indicate.

John Cottle's writing is like a clear mountain pool--the kind you might be lucky enough to find wandering the deep forested ends of the South. It has that kind of arresting clarity and simplicity and yet such richness of detail--light striking the surface just so, wheeling cascade of ferns, the dark reaches of shadows, rocks stacked in centuries--that tells you from the first you're looking at something you'll remember a long, long time. Of course you will reach your hand to touch such beauty, and the cold shock of that clear water will go straight through your bones--it's that powerful. You'll laugh but you won't leave: in fact, you may even jump right in, boots and all, splashing and swirling, floating for hours, remembering how wonderful it is to be warm-blooded, to be human, to be alive.....If you love masterful writing, memorable characters, and language that tells the truth of living, buy this book now.

A wonderful debut short story collection from Alabama writer John Cottle. If you love language, you'll love these stories. There are descriptions in The Blessings of Hard-Used Angels that are as lush as the landscape that inspired them. A rich cast of characters, too, their lives tragic, humorous, hopeful and ill-starred. The law is a central theme, what it takes to uphold it, break it, get used by it or simply ignored by it. There is a long tradition of great writing from the South, William Faulkner, Carson McCullers and Flannery O'Connor come immediately to mind. John Cottle's writing is of this tradition and continues it. Do yourself a favour and check this book out. You won't be disappointed.

John Cottle is a master storyteller. One tends to forget, in the midst of all the pseudo-fiction of today that is passed off as literature, that classic, poignant, 'real' literature is still being written. Cottle is one of those Southern writers who has stepped out of the traditions of Tennessee Williams' and William Faulkner to give us touching and masterful art in The Blessings of Hard-Used Angels. But for all of that, he is still lending his own fresh views to the plight of those men and women, the hard living, the hard working, the people we all know, mesmerizing us with prose that is so well wrought that it sweeps the reader right in. One story after another is guaranteed to knock your socks off, so I highly recommend this book. If you only buy one title this Christmas for gifts, make it this one; you can't go wrong.

This anthology rules the roost when it comes to good writing from the west. There's a freedom of expression and a willingness to push the envelop here that I have not found with other reviews on the university level. Kudos.

Bukowski's ghost is probably putting in overtime reading selections from Blue Mesa.

What I enjoyed about this particular issue was the willingness of the writers to explore the boundaries between countries and how that influences not only our relationships but the way we tend to look at the world. When a narrator writes about cities separating him from his friend, he is writing about more than geographical distance. Kudos to the editors of Blue Mesa!

BLUE MESA REVIEW #6 doesn't pull any punches. It begins with a great dramatic monologue dedicated to the memory of Cesar Chavez. This is a special issue because it is a tribute to Rudolfo Anaya, the man responsible for the existence of the magazine. He has helped assemble a marvelous collection of poetry and prose from writers more interested in The Other than the Self. These selfless writers challenge the status quo with emotional fireworks. I would say this issue is probably the finest collection of voices to come out of the west in quite a while.

Let's be honest. A lot of people felt that Bluebook had fallen off. After that award show confrontation with ALWD and the concealed weapons charges, Bluebook looked like they were on the ropes. That only makes this 18th edition more triumphant for the Bluebook. A stunning return to the form that made them such an irresistible bunch of ragamuffins to begin with, Bluebook has a sure answer to the naysayers who thought they couldn't adapt to the electronic movement--a blistering tribute to Internet citation.

For anyone interested in their new "harder" sound, the blue practitioner pages don't disappoint. Meanwhile the smooth, sculptural rhythms of "cases in textual sentences" will leave a smile on your face.

Overall, the soothing melodies of this consistently powerful album are ideal for any mood, whether it be insomnia or deadline adrenaline rushes. And let's be honest, it's the Bluebook. You're going to buy it. As another reviewer observed: buy it, don't download it off the internet! The artists really deserve our support.

Forget the New York Times bestseller list! Out of the anals of human history comes a book so compelling, so emotional, so all encompassing, that it defies description. On a level with "Great Expectations," mere words cannot describe its insightful witticisms ("Go forth and construe")("To interplead is human, to demur...devine"), its quaint conundrums ("To quash or not to quash, that is the interlocutory question"), its prophetic wisdom ("a footnote, in the right format, is worth a thousand words"), and yet its ultimate tragedy ("As you shall sow, so shall you replevin"). No true literary scholar should be without their own copy. Why wait for law school when you can own your copy today!

Mom & Dad, buy this book and a Black's Law Dictionary for your law student- to-be. If you buy anything when you go to law school, buy this. Current attorneys should own a copy; paralegals need to memorize it. I would never put pen to paper and write anything without this book by my side. It is a complete and easy to use reference guide. A time and grade saver for law students accross the nation.

Research and writing guides for the academic community (and the legal community in this case), don't come much more direct and no-nonsense than this. The Bluebook doesn't mess around with cheesy tips on how to write or structure a paper, which are useless puffery in other style guides that are merely there to add space and cost. The Bluebook lays out the highly complex requirements of the style in an easy-to-follow format, with useful examples for all (or most) possible sources, from standard newspaper articles to sections of foreign constitutions. The book ably provides what you need to write a properly-cited paper for the legal academic world, with no need to waste your time slogging through the filler of a typical style guide. The only problem is that the Bluebook is not quite adequate for beginners, even if they're fairly knowledgeable, because it assumes you're already familiar with the voluminous Latin terms and other arcane language of the legal realm. Basic introductions to some terms would certainly be an asset here, but eventually you'll have to buy a law dictionary anyway. [~doomsdayer520~]

This is a good concise way to study different aspects of medicine. I really like that each question has a full explanation of the answer.

Only 100 questions for this price is too little. Questions are good, same format as Kaplan questions. Good help when you are studying specific subject for the shelf or the boards, before you can do integrated subjects tests form other books.

Portable! Complete! Pertinent!
These are three strengths of this book. This white coat pocket-sized book allows one to complete 200 questions anytime and any place (including during rounds). The questions vary in difficulty from easy to more difficult. Nonetheless, the key facts to be learned are well explained in the answer explanation section, which covers not only the reasons for a correct answer but also outlines reasons that the other answers are incorrect. It is an excellent source of questions and a great starting point. If used to prepare for the actual Medicine shelf, then one can finish the entire book in under 4 hours! Some additional time will be needed to review the answers.

The new edition of the book now has 200 questions (twice that of the previous edition). The questions are arranged in the same style and length of the current Step 2 format. The questions are broken up into 5 question blocks. Each block has the answers with an explanation of why the correct answer is correct and (most importantly) why the other choices are incorrect. The questions in the book provide a good review of fundamental concepts with the more involved "2-3 step" questions found on Step 2. I think this is a great resource to use for Step 2 as well as a third year medical student on the wards. Many of the same concepts come up with actual patients in the hospital.

They are called the Bog People--these remains found in peat bogs in Denmark in the early 1950's. P.V. Glob gives us this story as a direct request of schoolgirls in England in the early 1960's. Asking for more information, the girls wrote: "We would like to know where he (the Tollund man) is now because we want to visit him when we are older." After sending some print-outs, Glob received yet another letter: "We like hearing about these people because it is amazing how well they have kept." THE BOG PEOPLE is his response to these curious girls.

If you are thinking circus at this point, you have captured that trait of man fascinated in the really weird things of life. When I taught "Beowulf the Epic," I included stories and photos from this book and displayed them through use of an opaque machine. Some students were so mesmerized they would leave their seats to examine the photos up close.

What the reader/viewer finds in these photos is an extremely bizarre preservation of these mummies with such detail, one can see eyelids, fingernails, blood vessels, hair, skin pores, and, yes, finger prints. Even the stomach contents of Tollund Man (shown on the cover) are preserved and include clover, rye, buttercup, yarrow, nightshade--it is believed to be a sort of vegetarian soup.

A noose was also found around Tollund Man's neck. Historians believe he was part of a ritual killing for sacrificial purposes. There are other remains, now in museums, that depict other details of life a thousand and more years ago. What preserved these people for so long--unbeknowst to the preservers-- was the peat, whose properties in water prevent normal decay. (The other way is intentional mummification, of course, the method practiced by the Egyptians.)

All in all, this book provides fascinating clues to the way of the life of man in prehistoric northern Europe. Plus, you get to gawk in the privacy of your own home.

A beautiful slim volume which should be on everyone's bookshelf. It is a disturbing and yet strangely moving book. However the text is woefully out of date and has a lot of misinformation on the Celts and their relationship with the trading systems of the North. It also lacks the modern theories of how and why these individuals were sacrificed. I highly recommend this book just as long as you don't use it as your only source of information on the Celts.

P. V. Glob's BOG PEOPLE is a concise and illuminating study of several exquisitly preserved bodies of Iron Age inhabitant discovered northern Denmark by peat diggers in the early 1950s.

Glob, who was on the scene soon after the bodies were discovered, describes the remarkable condition of the bodies, then proceeds to explore the circumstances of their deaths. Glob's exposition gives us a look into the practice of ritual sacrifice in Iron Age northern Europe. Enhancing his discussion with studies of their last meals, the manner of death, the clothes and jewelry they wore as well as other bog artifacts, Glob introduces us to a brutal world where ritual sacrifice played a critical role in the spiritual life of Iron Age residents of modern day Denmark.

The photographs and x-rays of the bodies are stunning. In particular, the haunting photos of the serene, delicately preserved Tolland man cast this study in an earthy yet unearthly light.

This is a rather unusual book and well worth reading. Most of the time we read about remains being found in caves,tombs or graves under stone monuments,etc. In this case, there is a real departure in that they are found in wet bogs.
Although, at the time these bodies were placed in the bogs,it was probably not known that the acidic properties wound result in their unbelievable preservation.
These bodies were most likely "buried" in the period of 200 B.C until
200 A.D. This period was during the early Bronze Age and in the northern
and western part of Europe. Civilization was not near as well developed here as in southern Europe when Rome was at its height of development.
The author describes a few of the remains and tries to show who these people were and why they were interred in bogs.This occurred over a wide area and at many locations.
There seems to be two main reasons why remains were placed in these bogs.
Some were obviously murdered,sacrificed,hung or otherwise executed because of crimes,need of a victim for sacrifice, or because they were thought to be possessed,or otherwise evil. Many were staked to the ground to prevent them or their spirits from returning. Others were placed there because of their high ranking in the society.This was determined because those remains showed no evidence of wounds,mutilation or ropes around their necks or limbs.They were also accompanied with artifacts and or treasures.
This book would probably not be considered a great or highly learned Archaeological effort. Be that as it may,it is a very interesting read and an insight into life at the time through a very different window.
The author has included a large number of excellent photos;though it's a shame they are not in color.
It is also of note, that it was first published in 1969 and is still in print.

This book is absolutely essential if you want to understand what television has done to Western Civilization. It is not a rant against shabby programming but a brilliant analysis of what the medium itself does to us, regardless of content. Marc is a compassionate and witty writer and his book deserves to be widely known and discussed.

The main point of Bonfire of the Humanities is that there isn't a difference any more between what used to be called High and Low Culture. These categories might have been hard to define, but at least academics used to know where to put Titus Andronicus and where to put Star Trek.

The Low Culture David Marc is most interested in is television, which he points out controls us by delivering pleasure, not pain, as dystopian literature sometimes predicted.

But there were artists who foresaw how we would get hooked on TV. (Even the expression "hooked on" reduces the viewer to just another plug-in.) I remember a scene in Francois Truffaut's film Fahrenheit 451, where the fireman's wife is is watching/participating in a TV soap opera. The characters stop and address her by name, asking what they should do about the latest plot complication.

What's worse is I don't remember if the scene is in Ray Bradbury's novel, which I read, or not. But I still remember the image from the movie. I've been educated out of the reading culture and into the viewing culture just like the character in Truffaut's film.

What makes Marc's essays so informative (and a lot funnier to read in places than most university press books) is that he isn't a partisan of one culture over the other. He criticizes teachers who have allowed their students to graduate without developing a love for reading and writing as well as the professional curmudgeons who want to limit "education" to some cannon they've decided on.

Did you know that reading Madame Bovary and watching Beavis and Butthead might drive you to the same kind of antisocial behavior? Huh huh huh.

The film critic David Thomson said that there have been two terrible threats to humankind in the second half of the twentieth century - - nuclear weapons and television, and that the way it turned out television was the more insidious, beamed into our brains every day.

I am a doctoral student in English and I teach multiple sections of Freshman Composition. This is the first book this presents a recognizable picture of the contemporary classroom: a place where literacy is taught as a specialist's skill to students immersed in television culture. If you are interested in the future of reading and writing, I recommend this book highly. It is also hilariously funny.

To his credit, Marc, an erstwhile literary scholar, doesn't delve into the pseudo-academic question of whether television is or isn't a cornerstone of contemporary American culture. Instead, he examines what actually has transpired in the US -- the wholesale acceptance (and enjoyment) of the medium -- and describes its impact on the ever changing landscape of the Republic. With an oftentimes acerbic wit, Marc, lifts the curtain on the great Oz, allowing us to see who we are and what we've become, intellectually and culturally, whether we want to admit it or not. Ample notes let the reader discover further musings on the effects of this commonplace appliance. Overall, a brilliant -- if not disquieting -- social critique of Americans and our often reviled, often beloved boob tube.

.... "It has seventeen new essays and 37 new book lists added to the second edition mentioned here. Forty six essays describe how individual groups are organized and portray thier strengths, weaknesses, and unique characters. Special-interest groups, groups with professional leaders or sponsors, new groups, and groups that have been meeting for decades are all represented. Readers discover what makes a good group tick, from how to organize meetings, select members and books, and stimulate discussion to turning a flagging group around. More than three dozen reading lists supplied by the groups themselves help to provide insight and inspiration for all who currently belong to a book group or are tempted to start a group of thier own....

From Fall 2000, but Amazon does not carry it yet. Hopefully soon. "It has seventeen new essays and 37 new book lists added to the second edition mentioned here. Forty six essays describe how individual groups are organized and portray thier strengths, weaknesses, and unique characters. Special-interest groups, groups with professional leaders or sponsors, new groups, and groups that have been meeting for decades are all represented. Readers discover what makes a good group tick, from how to organize meetings, select members and books, and stimulate discussion to turning a flagging group around. More than three dozen reading lists supplied by the groups themselves help to provide insight and inspiration for all who currently belong to a book group or are tempted to start a group of thier own. This book replaces 1-55652-246-0" catalog

I was looking for information about starting a book club when I found this book. At first I thought it would be useless because I was looking for guidelines, and this is a collection of essays. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the essays here not only provided the information I was looking for but were enjoyable reading in their own merit. The collection reads like a book of short stories. The compiled book lists are also very helpful.

A Thoughtful Guide to Forming & Enjoying a Stimulating Book Discussion Group with essayss written, often collectively, by members of many & varied groups together with a What To Read section. With a foreword that only Margaret Atwood could write, this collection of quirky, humorous & serious essays gathered from book groups around the country, enchants, entertains & had me plotting how to start a group out of our local library. A really neat read. ................

This is destined to become one of the classic management texts. I found the authors treatement of the subject matter to be insightful and well thought out. This is a must for any person of color who is wondering why it's taking them so long to move into the executive level. As a trainer I will be using this as one of my texts, and I plan on sending a number of copies to my friends.

Few books have the ability to relate the importance of the information contained within to both professional and layman alike. That is, however, exactly what this book accomplishes. It shows you the how the achievements of minorities trying to attain status at the corporate level are linked to career decisions and mentoring relationships. This is accomplished by examining the characteristics of several minority executives at different companies who have managed to break through the glass ceiling. It also teaches several approaches for acheiving racial diversity throughout a company. It examines three large corporations who have accomplished this feat, by tracing their diversity efforts throughout the past few decades. This book is a must read for anyone interested in the processes by which businesses accomplish diversification throughout all levels of the company.

I just finished reading Breaking Through and learned quite a bit. Recommend it to you. I wish the subject of leadership, and how to properly use it to get results on the job, was addressed more. I recommend you also get a copy of another book that addresses this issue and is very applicable to the subject of minorities as leaders: "The Leader's Guide: 15 Essential Skills." It's at Amazon too.

Breaking Through is a multifaceted book that speaks to a spectrum of audiences: the business leader committed to creating a diverse workplace; the human resource professional charged with designing and implementing diversity initiatives; the minority professional aspiring to break through.

This book sheds light on the complex career dynamics presented to minority professionals in corporate America. As an aspiring minority professional, I took away valuable strategies, as well as pitfalls, for achieving my career goals.

The book is a balance of compelling empirical evidence and real-life examples. The depth of analysis makes for an engaging and enlightening reading experience.

Breaking Through will serve as a personal professional reference guide and I am sure that it will become an invaluable resource throughout my career.