Reviews Books

I have read about 50 POW escape books, most from WW2. This guy was tough. Most of the escapers are amazing people. I think most the escape books have more humor than this one. Richard Pape wasn't about being funny he was determined to escape at all costs.

I just finish Richard Papes' novel about his exploits as a POW in Europe during WWII. He has a great ability to tell not only his story of survival and wartime intrigue but those of the Poles and other eastern Ethics group. If you ever needed a pick me in today's fast pace world this book is it.

True story first person page turner about a British RAF pilot shot down during WWII and his accounts of being captured, escaped, captured again and escaped for a third time. Brillantly written, taking you on an across occupied Europe underground suspence story of bravery and heroism

A classic book covering all aspects of business stats
-a real boon to students and business professionals.

I manage a group of people who are incredibly skilled in data modeling and business statistics. I purchased this book as a refresher and reference - and was very happy with it. It discusses key statistical issues in simple terms - giving you the tools to handle yourself in any discussion.

I read this book just before starting an MBA course called "Basic Statistics". I found the book to be clear, intuitive and it certainly covered all topics we discussed in class. In my opinion, this book presents an easy way to understand Statistics by applying them to real business situations. I still use it as reference at work. Highly recommendable for business people interested in Statistics and with no much background in Math (just make sure you know how to add)

This is one of the best first person accounts of WW2.
I have read most of the first person accounts from the German side,and this ranks among the best.

This splendid book tells the remarkable story of Degrelle and hundreds of thousands of other non-German volunteers who fought against the forces of the Soviet tyranny in World War II. Because circumstances allied us with Stalin, people like Degrelle were vilified as "collaborators" with the Germans. Anyone with an interest in the Eastern Front will learn volumes from the author's humble recitation of what he and his men endured. As horrible as the Eastern Front was, the author endured worse after the war, when his family was imprisoned and his children forcibly scattered to institutions across Europe in a vengeful attempt to punish him. It's a story you'll never forget, and a side of history wholly unknown to most.

It is never easy to judge the motivations of people 60 years prior, but Degrelle gives a plausible and doubtlessly accurate explanation of the political malaise in Belgium and much of Europe before the war. The view he shared with a large number of others was that the Bolsheviks were the real danger to Europe and the "European" army fighting the Reds on the Eastern Front saw this as fighting for their past and their future as Europeans. With the wisdom of hindsight was he wrong?
Degrelle also goes some way to debunking a few myths.
- Scorched earth gets barely a mention. In fact there are numerous mentions of huge crops late into the fighting.
- That it all came down to numbers. Degrelle credits the Russians with fighting to match the conditions while explaining how the German "civilisation" was often a real handicap.
- Worse than the cold was the mud.
Degrelle paints an ugly picture of war, but displays a love of life and beauty, things we are not supposed to associate with the SS, even the Waffen SS. It is a privilege to be given his perspective.

These books are charming, clever and fun to read. My 7 year-old niece loves them.

The Jenny Linsky books are so delightful it is surprising that they have not been picked up and ruined by some savvy merchandising conglomerate. This one focuses on Sinbad and the Duke, two stray cats in New York City who are suspicious of but intrigued by the the "civilized" members of the Cat Club. Each cat in the series is given a distinct personality and, although the books were written some time ago, the stories are not at all dated. We first introduced our daughter to them when she was in kindergarten, and she still enjoys them as a 10-year-old tween. Highly recommended.

This was a great family read-aloud book for our cat-loving preschooler. We borrowed it from the library, and liked it so much we bought it. It's a classic that will last us many years!
The story follows two scrappy stray cats ("tramps" who are feral by choice) who balk at making friends with a quite civilized club of pet cats. The irreverent tramps at first resent the Cat Club rules (hilariously calling the club's decorous president "The Old Windbag"), but gradually see the up side of playing by the rules. The language is quaint and charming, and the story is spunky and readable.

This is a new book in Dr. Toy's case files series. It is the best book I read to help me prepare for the surgery shelf exam (better than NMS, Surgical Recall, First Aid, etc.) It contains 55 cases that cover the most commonly encountered problems students will see on the surgery shelf exam and in clinical practice. It covers definitions, diagnosis, and management of disease. Most importantly, this book teaches students how to think about and answer correctly questions on the exam, especially the many questions that ask, "What is the next step in management?" Format makes book easy and fun to read, great for reading a couple of cases even when students are very tired from the long hours of a surgery rotation.

This book is FABULOUS! It's well-organized, has the right amount of detail, and is extremely high yield in terms of learning & for the shelf. I bought 5 over-priced, yet useless surgery books before I found this one. After reading the reviews here, I decided to get it. I never write reviews, but let me tell you, after using this book, I had to come in here & comment...it was that good!!!!

For the new third year students out there, you'll be inundated with study materials to help you prepare for wards and shelf exams. But the way you learn and the way you are tested is totally different now. You are expected to learn independently and apply that knowledge on wards and on tests (shelf exams will ask what to do to manage patients or the next step in treatment)

This is where Case Files comes in. For the first half of the year, I used other texts that presented the information in a standard textbook way. While they were easy to read, I often forgot most of the salient points about each disease. It was extremely frustrating for me to waste so much time. But Case Files is different. Each book in the series presents 50-60 clinical scenarios that you'll see not only on wards, but also on your shelf exams and step 2 CK.

Each case is presented the same. First you read the scenario, then it asks you a couple of overview questions about things like diagnosis, treatment, and initial management. Then background information is present. First, there is an analysis section where key terms are defined, background info is presents, clinical considerations and management issues are addressed; it's like what you get in other texts but it applies to a real (albeit simulated) patient. Then questions are presented at the end to reinforce what you just read. One of my favorite things is that clnical pearls are summarized at the end of each case (these are great to review the day before a test).

The Surgery book in the series was no different. Having just taken the shelf exam, I feel like this book did a great job of covering the majority of the material with very little prep time because the book is easy to read and the information sticks in your head. Other books are frustrating in that they are boring and take too much of your precious time to have such a low yield. I kept wanting something better, and I found it with the Case Files series. With a minimal amount of outside reading, you'll be surprised with how fast you'll go through this book, remember important facts about your patients, impress your attendings, and see great shelf exam scores (I know mine went up)

Wow! We love this book even though we are not preparing for the MRCP! The book is completely up-to-date, and the cases are incredibly educational and thought-provoking. If you think you know everything in Medicine, this book will prove you wrong. Incidentally, the questions are much more difficult than what you would see on the American Board of Internal Medicine. An example: Case 1.4 is a 30 year old lady with dilated cardiomyopathy diagnosed 2 years ago now undergoing transplantation because of rapid deterioration. Coronary was normal on cath. She had a PHx of premature menopause 2 years ago. The surgeon made the diagnosis at surgery. What was the diagnosis?----A Cardiology Fellow, New York City.

Be warned - some of the questions are very hard - but Goldsmith provides excellent explanations to the answers. Graded marks are given for possible answers, just like in the exam, which I really liked.

This was the only membership book I kept after passing the exam. It is very well written and is a real gem.

These cases tell your simulated patient exactly what to say and do during the H&P. It is excellent for student-student practice but also if you are practicing with a patient (like my husband) who does not have a medical background. In addition, it also has really good examples of SOAP notes and detailed diagnostic and management plans following each case.

I have also used First Aid and USMLE World to study for the Step 2 CS. I found "Case-Based Simulation" to be particularly helpful for studying the musculoskeletal components of the exam. This book has very easy to understand descriptions and diagrams of the maneuvers for examining the knee, shoulder and back. It also describes the pathophysiology that may be related to each type of complaint. After practicing the exams, I now feel that I can do these exams with confidence.

I would still buy First Aid or subscribe to UW to study, but this book is very helpful as a companion or to practice with classmates.

I found this book to be very helpful, with thorough discussions of the topics. The book is designed to be used for study with other people to practice cases. I have used this book and First Aid.

This arrived in good shape and in good time. I appreciate it all.

The novel, Cassandra at the Wedding (first published in 1962), starts out simply enough; the first-person narrator, Cassandra Edwards, tells us that the spring semester has ended at Berkeley, California, where she is writing an M.A. thesis on the contemporary French novel; and she's packing a bag to drive to her parents' ranch near Tipton to attend her sister Judith's marriage to a truly lovable man. Not only is Cassandra a budding scholar, she's a talented pianist, and competitive swimmer, and she loves her sister more than anyone--even more than her sister's fiancee--so Cassie thinks. For this is the point: Cassie cannot bear to part with her nearly identical twin sister and will do almost anything to stop their wedding. As Cassie lets us deeper into her thought processes, the reader will find that--as learned and cultured as she is--Cassie isn't aware of the effects she has on others and on herself: Cassie is often cynical, passive aggressive, and wantonly perverse in her refusal to "get it," i.e., to love and let love. Her insolence towards the people she says she loves is an astonishing dismissal of their emotional lives. The fact that Dorothy Dodds Baker makes it easy for us to see Cassie without Cassie seeing herself is testament to the author's mastery of irony and understatement. Without a doubt Baker has created a character who is both infuriating and heroic. In fact, it's Cassie's youth and intelligence that makes her inability to let her sister go such a riveting contemporary drama. Also of note: The NYRB book cover is an appropriate painting by David Park; Deborah Eisenberg's "Afterward" is informative.

You're a twin --- so close to your sister that she moved across the country.

Now she's getting married to a man you've never met and cutting the cord for good.

And you're her only bridesmaid.

In the universe we now inhabit --- the urban chickscape of "Sex and the City" --- Cassandra Edwards would have a posse of smart-talking, Chardonnay-swilling pals to help her through this overwrought moment. They'd gab for hours about her choice of a bridesmaid's dress. They'd speculate about the groom's endowment. And they'd tease Cassandra for her ambivalence about catching the bouquet.

"Cassandra at the Wedding" is a stunning rebuke to that shallow-as-glass sensibility.

More to the point, it's a smart, stylish, disturbing novel --- a book much too good to languish at an Amazon.com ranking of 1,000,000.

But then, Dorothy Baker is not exactly a household name. Young Man with a Horn --- her fictionalized account of the doomed jazz great Bix Beiderbecke --- was published in 1938. It's pure pleasure; I've read it a dozen times since discovering it as a kid. I thought it was her only novel until a Butler reader tipped me to "Cassandra at the Wedding", the last of what turn out to be Baker's three novels.

Like "Young Man with a Horn," this novel begins effortlessly: "I told them I could be free by the twenty-first, and that I'd come home the twenty-second." That makes Cassandra seem chatty and friendly. Well, it doesn't take long for her bitchy side to surface. Example: Her twin's beloved is John Thomas Finch. Cassandra's comment: "Where'd she meet him --- Birdland?"

Soon we see that Cassandra is an inventory of neurosis. She's writing a thesis about French writers rather than be a writer --- her mother wrote plays and novels --- but she's stumbling even in her academic writing. Her biggest issue, naturally, is her twin. She's just obsessed. And with every detail of their lives. She was, she notes, born "two ounces heavier and eleven minutes older than the one named Judith."

As children, they lived on the Northern California ranch where Judith will be married. They came right home after school: "We didn't need people." Now, even though separated, they're so in tune with one another that they have both bought the same dress to wear at the wedding.

To Cassandra, that's one more metaphor for all that's wrong about Judith's wedding --- one more reason she must stop it. She explains this to us at great length, and some readers, wading through these pages, will think this book is just talk talk talk. It's not. Baker is doing something far more subtle and accomplished --- she's presenting a close account of an unraveling personality.

On the wedding day, there's an event. No spoilers here, but it's not the wedding, and it is a shocker. And it leads to more. And, in the end, you feel you've come to know some people at least as complex as you are and as twisted as some people you know.

Oh, there's a twitch I've failed to mention. "With men I feel like a bird in the clutch of a cat, terrified, caught in a nightmare of confinement, wanting nothing but to get free and take a shower," Cassandra tells us. Translation: She's gay. Context: "Cassandra" was published in 1962, so at no point is this ever made explicit. But you can read the entire book without being aware of her sexuality. For me, that's the mark of good writing.

This book is invaluable for training of inexperienced lab techs and for reference for more experienced ones. Indespensable.

This is a great book to own. Every time I needed to find something I opened this book and it was there for me. It is very clearly written and contains lots of helpful info. A big Thanks to Dr. Ballinger :-)

This book provides me with technical information commonly needed in a laboratory environment. It seems to boil down many references all into one easy to read book. The index is fantastic, you can find anything in the book quickly and easily. This is usually a problem with most reference books, but not with this one.

I love this book! Finally some women's voices in the almost all-male bastion of movie reviewing. I think the format and writing is fabulous - concise, witty, insightful. And i love the way the 3 writers play off each other. I'll be recommending Chicks on Film to all my movie-going friends. It's an antidote, a refreshing breath of air and extremely intelligent to boot. We need more books likes this. Bravo!

At long last the world can breathe a sigh of releif. The book the 20'th century (I know I spelled that wrong so don't gripe about it) has awaited hath arrived. Bow down before the pages of this imaculate masterpeice of modern critical film review. (or a movie as you Americans call it) The insights are amazing, the prose deep, the reviews well thought out, and the cover cheesy. What more could you want?

Ok enough deadwood. What is this book really about? Well this is the first book to specifically look at movies from the female point of view (at least to my knowledge). Three marvelous women spent many hours comparing their thoughts on countless films. Each has a unique outlook so a true multitude of taste is represented in their magnificant reveiws.

In other words I highly recomend it. It is if nothing else FUN!

Have you ever said..."today is a perfect day to stay at home and watch a movie"? Then this book is for you. Not only do you get a large selection of movies to choose from... you get three sometimes very different opinions from three very different women on the movie itself. One is sure to fit your own! I recommend this book to every woman who has ever rented a video and plans to do so in the future (Need to let the girfriends know for our "girlfriends night" which consist of movies, chocolate chip cookies, popcorn and lots of girl talk). I might go as far to say that it wouldn't hurt for your "insignificant" other to read it too!