Reviews Books

This book is a wonderful compilation of Preston Sturges' screenplays.
It's very good for all who love the great director.

This volume contains some of Sturges' best work, including the immortal comedy The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, together with The Palm Beach Story and Unfaithfully Yours. Five stars for The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, perhaps the funniest, most subversive movie of the 1940's.

The biggest curiosity here, though, is Sturges' script for his odd dental-anesthesia biopic The Great Moment. This film was heavily altered by the studio prior to its release. Sturges' original script would probably have been a better picture, but it's hard to imagine this project succeeding in any case.

Contains the screenplay for "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" (to my taste, the most hilarious film of all time). When I worked as a cataloger at Newport Public Library, I constantly told my co-workers that I thought Preston Sturges wrote better dialogue than Shakespeare. I could prune lines from "Hamlet," but I couldn't cut a single line from "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek."

I read this book years ago and have never forgotten it. This is a great book and anyone planning or even just wanting to travel should read it. I have traveled extensively, but I have never been to most of the places Fred writes about, like India or Africa. However, I still found the information in this book to be extremely useful in places like Mexico, Eastern Europe, Thailand, or really everywhere I have ever been. For years it has influenced my behavior and thinking about why I travel and intercultural exchanges in general. There is nothing in this book which is off the mark or inaccurate, even though it was written a while ago. If you have any wanderlust at all, read this book!

This is an amazing book. I first read it before I began my first world travel in the late 1980s, then passed my dog-eared copy on to a friend from England who was heading to Africa and India on her own. I read it so many times before giving it away that I've memorized portions of the book. In my recent trip to a developing nation, many of Fred's guiding words got me through some tough times with skill. Sound advice and highly recommended. Fred - if you're out there - sure wish you would do an updated version to this guide!

I consider myself to be a pretty seasoned traveller now. But it's this book that really started it all for me. I bought it from a local outdoor store in Alabama, just before I went to live in Egypt for a year. I read it on the way over, and at least 2 more times while living there. It's absolutly one of my favorite books, and has inspired me to go to some far off, out of the way places.

The advice he imparts is classic, from how to choose where to go, how to get there, what to do when you get there, and how to reintegrate yourself when you get back. He's got chapters on nearly every aspect of travel, from transportation, to troubles, to health on the road, and even how to deal with locals and the other travelers you may encounter along the way.

He intersperses his advice with small blocks of travelogue to highlight a particular piece. Many are his own experiences, but others are submitted by other travelers. My own favorite, is "Garbage Truck Overland."

If you've never traveled, you must read this book before you go. It will inspire you to get off your duff and head out there where there are no tourists. If you're a traveler, you'll find many anecdotes that will make you guffaw, and reminisce on your own trips.

Buy This Book!!

Five stars plus for this young mans insight, interpretation, and brilliant display of history. I like many other readers were turned off by the boring history books we read in school. Lambers captures the true spirit of history! Because of the excitement this book ignites; this book has the potential to change the course of how history is viewed and studied. This book is a MUST READ for everyone. This book would make a great gift not only for teachers and history buffs, but also the person who hungers for knowledge. (The study guide is an added bonus to treasure) BRAVO!

I read the book first, and it was interesting to realize that the peaceful relations with Britain that we now take for granted were nonexistent and took hard work to accomplish. And the Study Guide is very good, and is surprisingly loaded with historical facts and fun word searches. I wish I had studied with this kind of material instead of boring history books that made me "hate" history for many years. Now I love it!

This book is early American history in a "capsule," full of important events describing the conflicts between America and Britain, yet imagines the ordinary citizen's feelings about the wars in an interesting blend of fiction and history. Young people especially should read it.

An excellent book. It really worth its value.
very good images if not excellent, many technical and clinical tips which is really helpfull.
Cover anatomy, technique and pathalogoy in comperhensive way.
One of the best cased based books.

Great pictures.
Good selection of cases.
Good price.
I recommend this book just like all the others from this collection (Case Review).

This is definitely the best one out of the series. The pictures are excellent, often including labels to help the beginning resident get a grasp of viewing U/S anatomy. Each case is succintly presented with an excellent disccusion. The case selection is also fantastic, as it covers the important topics with the exclusion of OB/GYN (covered in it's own seperate series). All the info in this book is material residents should be expected to know.

One imagines John G. Morris as the sort of grandfather with a thousand amazing stories, whom everyone in the family has asked to write a book for years and who finally sets about the task.

As a sequence of compelling snapshots, Morris selects and arranges his tales into a layout that explores unresolved questions, ambivalences, regrets, hopes, thrills, and humor.

For anyone interested in photojournalism, as a profession, its personalities - the lives, loves, and losses of those standing on the other side of the camera while celebrities splash across the pages - this book is an excellent starting place. His 'editor's eye' view of the profession turns the camera back upon the photographers, telling tales behind pictures generally left untold. By disclosing the various photographic negatives, he discloses a positively fascinating image of the origins of modern imagemaking.

I just finished reading this novel and I must admitt it is one of the best novels I have read this year. It really is an exciting travel through the 20th century, through the eyes of a man who's carreer made him involved with major political and social events. I would say this is a must to anyone interested in photography and journalism, and a recommended for anyone with a heartbeat. I really loved this book.

This is a well-written rolicking ride through the last century and the history of photojournalism in the American media. It has an index that reads like the Who's Who of the century with anecdotes and insights galore on the movers and shakers of photojournalism and history. I enjoyed every word and I recommend it highly.

The Gist of Genetics

I've had Dr. Davis as a professor and he used this book as a reading for the course. It is very helpful and straight to the point, will help you see the big picture, as well as providing the important details.

In my sophomore genetics class we used two textbooks. One is a 600 pages textbook filled with colorful pictures, the other one is the this book. After I spent hours reading and comprehending a chapter in the 600-pages tiny-font textbook, I turned to the 200-pages large-font Gist of Gennetics. And there it is, truly the gist of genetics. I regretted that I didn't read this book first but instead wasted my valuable time reading useless [junk]. The only problem is that this book is entirely black and white, with little to no picture (only has genetic diagrams). But unless you are the type who fall asleep reading b/w textbooks, this is a great book for quick understanding of basic genetics.

Truely enjoyed it. Thank you.

These poems, from a professor at Emporia State University in Kansas, are from an astute observer of the Great Plains landscape. Using the landscape as a backdrop, Heldrich searches for meaning and revelation in our everyday lives. In his unforgettable poem "Momentum," while driving to Tulsa, he takes note of the cast off trash along the way and yet finds in such an everyday experience "...an unsung love to it, a love of the highway, a love of the country, a love of people and their wasteful bodies so deep the momentum drives me home." In poem after poem, forty-six in all, the reader is made aware of our surroundings and the sometimes taken-for-granted events in our everyday life and urged to celebrate life amidst all of it's uncertainities and limitations. For Heldrich, he shares some of his simple beliefs used to ward off the void in a wonderful poem "Good Friday:" ...the returning sun at breakfast, the beautiful coupling of our lake's geese, the rising green after prairie burnings, the silence of Sunday morning at home, or how my wife fills an empty room with light." For the reader looking for faith, hope, charity, and reconciliation without the usual touchy-feely verse, this is one of the best. An exceptional collection.

Good Friday contains some of the best poetry I have read since Carl Sandburg's Honey & Salt. Mr. Heldrich has drawn on his life experience to create both beautiful and moving images for the reader. My only regret is that the book wasn't long enough. More please!!!

Baxter, Kathleen A. and Marcia Agness Kochel. 1999. Gotcha! Nonfiction Booktalks to Get Kids Excited About Reading. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.

Kathleen A. Baxter states that she has a healthy streak of curiosity and an active interest in a lot of things which makes nonfiction books her choice for booktalks. She wants to tantalize, intrigue, and wet the appetite of children and adults and finds that Nonfiction has a wide range of reading levels available on an interesting subject. Ideas for over 350 booktalks are presented in seven chapters. Baxter always insists books in her library collection are well reviewed; books she mentions in the seven chapters have all received favorable reviews in major library reviewing publications. Booktalks\ programs include at least one book from every chapter. In her introduction, Baxter introduces herself and Marcia Agness Kochel, a public librarian and a school librarian as fanatics about quality books who hope to add some good ideas to your repertoire and fuel to fill up your bag of tricks.

Baxter states: "Booktalking to me means telling people who may not be readers some of the reasons why a particular book may appeal to them." Baxter's suggestions for beginning your booktalks give general guidelines and include specific ideas such as "Gary Paulson's book Nightjohn, a fiction book that describes a slave who teaches other slaves to read and the horrible punishment he must endure as a consequence. One of the greatest ways to keep people from getting power is to prevent them from reading. If you want power, read!"

High interest topics are discussed in depth in seven thematic chapters: (1) "Great Disasters," including shipwrecks and disasters at sea, fires, floods, diseases and other natural disasters; (2) "Fun Stuff--Jokes, Gross Books, and Books that Will Make You Laugh," including puzzles, jokes and fun facts, poetry, gross stuff, and just plain fun; (3) "Animals," including creatures of the air, creatures of the water, animals around the world, creepy-crawly creatures, pets, amazing animal facts, dinosaurs, and animals in danger; (4) "Unsolved Mysteries," including missing persons and disappearances, unexplained phenomena, and ghosts and urban legends; (5) "Science and Fun Experiments To Do," including experiments and activities, inventions and accidents, the world around us, dead bodies (archaeology and anthropology), and the human body; (6) "Fascinating People," including scientists/artists/musicians/writers, amazing women, athletes, historical figures, kids' favorite authors and illustrators, heroes and heroines, and fascinating kids; (7) "Our Wonderful, Terrible Past," including ancient history, customs and costumes throughout the ages, the American spirit, slavery and freedom, the continuing struggle for freedom, and the Holocaust and World War. Within each chapter are brief excerpts for reading aloud, pictures to lure kids to the books, and full bibliographies with reading levels for all the suggested titles. Each chapter offers plenty of starting points for creating attention-grabbing presentations.

Baxter and Kochel's book is loaded with information, suggestions, and tips to help encourage reading. It is a valuable resource for finding fascinating, thought provoking, and fun books to share with children and young adults. Baxter and Kochel successfully describe how booktalking can match up children with just the right book. Educators can learn important tips to "hook" even the most reluctant reader. Starting their book with nonfiction disaster books is equivalent to starting their booktalks with disasters, they "Gotcha". To thoroughly understand how to get children, young adults, and adults reading nonfiction books draw upon the examples in this book. This book is a valuable resource for educators committed to creating excitement for reading because it gives specific choices for booktalks that includes specific text and pictures. Baxter also explains why these titles lend themselves to great booktalks, featuring specific questions to ask and extensions to follow. The authors' wide experience with many audiences is the basis for the practical, straightforward advice given.

This book is a wonderful resource for parents, teachers, librarians, or anyone who gives books to kids, but who may need a bit of help in choosing appropriate books. Kathleen Baxter and Marcia Agness Kochel have focused on the wealth of nonfiction books which may appeal to kids, proving there's more to children's literature than Harry Potter. The book is organized according to topics: catastrophes/disasters;, jokes, riddles, silly and gross stuff; biographies; animals, history, etc., and is presented in the format of short, snappy "book talks" -- pitches given by librarians and teachers to kids to show them what books are out there and to consequently pique kids' interests and get them reading. The authors show great enthusiasm for the titles they showcase, and give wonderful tips on talking up the books; they "got" me a number of times, as I scribbled out titles and made a beeline to the library to check out a few books. Foolproof topics include dinosauers and mummies, the Titanic disaster, and baby animals. But this book presents lots of other nonfiction choices on a wide variety of topics--there's bound to be something of interest to the young people in your life. Each chapter ends with a bibliography of the titles mentioned, and I'll be sure to use this book when birthdays and holidays come around. And if the authors ever come to my library, I'll be sure to listen in on one of their book talks!

Most guides to Booktalks feature fiction but not this one. Ms. Baxter has gone where many fear to tread and tackled the favorite of many reluctant readers-Non Fiction. A Booktalk, for those who don't understand Teacherese or Library talk is brief description of a book and is designed to make every memember of the audience want to read the book RIGHT NOW.

GOTCHA! is divided into 7 sections, covering such kid popular topics as jokes, gross stuff, The Titanic,urban legends, interesting people, science, the past and animals. The style is bright and breezy and extensive bibliographies are provided.

Librarians will love it's "ready to use" format. The booktalks are designed to be used as is, or they can be used as a jumping off point and a librarian can modify them to suit their own collections. It will be very helpful to teachers looking for books to accompany science, language arts and social studies units. I can't think of a beter way to introduce a class to poety than with an enthusiastic booktalk featuring Jack Prelutsky. Homeschoolers will find it invalueable in planning units and finding quality literature for their children. In fact,kids will like it it too- it's a great resource for helping them find a book on a topic that interests them.

It's a must have for and Elementary schlool librarians & Teachers, Children's Librarians and anyone who enjoys reading a book about books.

This translation of four plays by Euripedes is brilliant, clean and clear, without pretension. It offers the direct gaze of an Athenian at human emotion and human fate, which is considered a matter of luck more than character. For the Athenians matters of state and import are rooted in the family, where everything begins.

I've owned copies of Euripides all my life and never got around to reading them, but when Grief Lessons came across my desk last week, I was compelled to read straight through it. The title alone speaks of Carson's special talent for reaching the heart of the matter. Grief Lessons. The layout of her character's dialogue, too, flows back and forth along the margins of the page so that your eye moves easily down the text. The characters speak simply, without flourishes, without annoying Victorian poetic touches. Grief Lessons opens up Euripides to you so clearly that you can hear the characters weeping and shouting at each other on the stage of your mind. At the same time, so simple is Carson's translation that her words have an open ended flexibility that let you imagine them being pitched almost any way. Is Admetus a typical egocentric or an oaf? I'd always felt sorry for Hippolytus, cursed unfairly by his father. Now I'd like to curse him myself. I've never seen pomposity in a youth so clearly shown in a play. Moreover, Euripides lived at the end of Greece's golden age. His cynicism of the gods and heroes plays very appropriately on the stage of today.

There is so much blood letting in these plays I would hate to be the stage manager. What a clean up after every performance.
Seriously folks...
The plays are spellbinding. The insights into what motivates human beings are brilliant. I enjoyed reading these plays 10 times more than I ever thought I would. I read the review inThe New Yorker and thought I'd take a chance. (I don't normally read the classics)
I gave it to my wife who loved the plays as well.
Great job.

While not as detailed as other books, this is an excellent starter for a person interested in knowing the basics of Christian theology. I especially like the format of each chapter. Professor Lightner offers a brief summary of the topic, then he gives the historical perspective, from there he talks about the agreements held by orthodox Christians, then the areas of disagreements some may take (for example in the chapter "God the Holy spirit" he sites the areas of disagreement whether the miraculous gifts are still for today or if they were only for the early church just to name one example) He finishes out the chapter with a conclusion and questions. It is worth noting he makes his views quite known but is very charitable to those holding different viewpoints. In an age where many want a more "Seeker Sensitive" or "User Friendly" church and sound teaching has taken a back seat, this book is an invaluable resource for the instruction of solid Biblical doctrine to lay persons.

Lightner presents the basic points for premillennial dispensationalism in an easy-to-read style. He covers much ground offering the reader a synopsis of 2000 years worth of orthodoxy. While not as voluminous as Grudem or Erickson, the book nonetheless helps the layman understand various issues of popular debate in evangelicism.

Dr. Lightner's clear, concise presentation of the classical dispensational position makes this book a must have for any Bible Teacher's library. He does and excellent job of presenting historical and biblical background as well as differing opinions to each of the major areas of the Christian Belief.