John Gray Books

If you are a student of folklore, this is a great book for you. Legendary Britain is a lavishly illustrated journey to the mythical and magical places that abound in the British Isles. Stewart and Matthews don't stop with the obvious, like King Arthur and Robin Hood, although there certainly is plenty of info about them here. The best part about this book is the coverage of less famous places and characters, the green men, King Bladud, Wayland Smithy, and Dragon Hll, to name but a few. Even if you aren't all that into folklore, this is an engrossing read, with all the old stories colorfully told. Great fun, and well researched.

I believe one of the most important thing you can do for your child is to communicate and spend time with him/her frequently to develop a strong and healthy bond. Some of the lists are about effective discipline, communication, ways to love your child, activities for the whole family, getting to know your teen and lots more.

This book helps remind us of the most important union of our lives. It is an excellent wedding or engagement gift. My husband and I refer to it often.

This is what is needed by every male and female. Just when you where sure that we could not get a long this book set arrives. Dr. Gray gives very common sense approaches as to why we do what we do and then tells us how to fix it. A must read for everyone!

I have so far heard 5 of the cassettes (which I borrowed from the library) and I really like it so far. The material is very good, concise and well narrated. Being my first audio book, I was really hooked on the examples provided, easy to follow material and straight forward delivery.

El libro es una excelente guía para entender cómo las relaciones humanas pueden arruinarse por no saber comprender al otro y lo mejor es que puede ser una excelente guía para intentar salvar una relación.
La lectura es fácil y entretenida con ejemplos concretos de situaciones reales... Altamante recomendable para aquellos que quieren conocer al otro sexo y tratar de mantener una sana relación de pareja

7.24.99 SJW *****

This is something of a book review, but also a commentary on the Mathematica package. My background is a recent MS in Computer Science. My interest in Mathematica is as a thinking tool for Programmer/Analysts or R&D Prototypers.

John Gray's book comes with a CD-ROM including the entire text of the book (the book was produced using Mathematica) as well as help files which can easily be integrated into the resources of the Mathematica Help Browser.

The book is well laid out (see the Table of Contents at amazon.com) topically, starting with very basic usage of the math abilities, and the user interface, then moving on to programming styles using Mathematica and methods of representing information in Mathematica. (All major commands in the Mathematica package are searchable, topical resources are available via documentation chapters on that topic, and explanatory text is hyperlinked in html format.)

The book's style is absolutely functional, and is targeted at users who have at least a threshhold knowledge of modern programming. Much of the material somewhat assumes that the reader has read enough using the Help Browswer with its on-line manual to be able to operate the notebook interface. Examples are given for almost every topic (the examples are executable in Mathematica, as the text of the book is in the form of a Mathematica notebook), although the specifics of each example are not necessarily explained.

As a programmer, the most amazing revelation of Gray's book is the degree to which the Mathematica package is programmable. Of course, procedural commands are built in to allow the coding of procedural algorithms (these commands have the form of generic pseudocode commands, or "near-C"). But Gray gives examples of programming using functions (recursion is allowed), as well as instructions re o-o and constraint (rule-based) styles of programming. (Note that Mathematica has built in pattern matching notations--especially useful for rule-based programming.)

In short, not only is Mathematica a completely integrated symbolic/numeric advanced math utility with integrated graphics and statistical packages, but it also has its own virtual operating system (full file i/o controls), and it allows the user to write rule-based programs (such as LISP or Prolog interpreters) which have full access to all of the built in Mathematica abilities, and to custom compiled components which the user has written.

Because all Mathematica's abilities are integrated, data can easily be displayed graphically, allowing visual debugging of difficult algorithms, or analysis (or reports). Gray provides a few examples of the visual display of algorithms.

The bottom line is that Mathematica is an astounding prototyping tool, as well as being the best graduate CS math utility I have used. And John Gray's book opens up these possibilities to the reader. Savor the possibilities!

The piece illustrating the cover is the highlight of this incredible collection. It is known as the Lilies of the Valley Basket. The moss is pure spun gold, the basket gold, the flowers are pearls with highlights of diamonds. The entire basket is made up of yellow and green golds, silver, nephrite, pearls, and rose cut diamonds. All the pieces in this collection are gorgeous-- absolutely amazing. This work was a favorite of Czarina Alexandra and was created in 1896.

This 57-piece collection includes three Imperial eggs. The Imperial Caucasus Egg was a gift from Czar Alexander in 1893. The portraits on this egg are covered by magnificant and ornate doors that open up to reveal miniature portraits of the Grand Duke and Abastuman, the Royal Lodge. It was created with yellow and quatre-colored gold, silver, platinum, guilloche enamel, diamonds, pearl, crystal, and ivory. Stunning.

Also included here are the Imperial Danish Palaces Egg which was given to the Czarina by Czar Alexander III. This one is light pink enamel but includes a fold out panel which holds 10 pictures of the royal residences in Denmark and Russia.

The last egg is the Imperial Napoleonic Egg and marked the 100th anniversary of the Russian defeat of Napoleon. Larger than the other eggs, there is a six panel fold out revealing the six regiments and the Dowager Empress as their honorary colonel. The materials used here were gold, enamel, diamonds, platinum, ivory, gouache, velvet, and silk. Exquisite.

There are also several pairs of opera glasses (rose and green gold, tri-color gold, anamel, silver, diamonds), perfume bottles, cigarette cases, trinkets, an inkwell (bowerite, silver, enamel, and glass) and small items of jewelry, such as rings.

The floral works, however, are the most highly admired pieces by historians and there are 18 other floral works in this collection besides the Lilies of the Valley basket. The flowers and leaves are made of carved semi-precious stones and adorned with diamonds and other gems, as well as gold. They are lavish and ornate. The Orange Blossom Spray, for instance, has leaves and petals made of quartzite, olivine, nephrite, rock crystal, with gold stems.

I was fortunate to view this magnificent collection this week and was duly impressed. This 160 page book (catalog, really) is full of beautiful color photos and descriptions of each masterpiece. It also explains the origin of this collection while giving more information about Matilda Geddings Gray.

Matilda Geddings Gray began collecting these works in the 1930s. At different times she was offered an immense amount of money to return these items to Russia. She always declined and the foundation she created has also declined to sell them. They are permanently housed in the New Orleans Museum of Art, but are presently out on loan to a nearby museum.

I think is a great book , reading the book is like living again many stages of my life. Relationships can really be improve with this book.

Scholarly, yet highly readable. Professor Fowler's new book provides needed background on the motivations of East Tennessee's Confederate volunteers, their wartime service, their medical histories and, uniquely, their post-war lives.

In the tradition of Inscoe, Fisher, McKenzie, Groce, et al, "Mountaineers in Gray" sheds much more light on East Tennessee's Confederates from Hamilton, Knox, Washington, Sullivan, Rhea, McMinn, Polk and Hawkins counties.

Organized by the wealthy Anderson County attorney and plantation owner, Col. David H. Cummings, the Nineteenth fought in almost all of the battles in the Western Theatre from 1861-65. After he was wounded at Shiloh, Col. Cummings joined his son as a cotton factor in New Orleans, Louisiana and on their plantation near Baton Rouge. Col. F.M. Walker replaced him.

The 62 pages of Endnotes and Bibliography are worth the price of the book by themselves for any serious student of the war in the Western Theatre.

The design and production of this and other recent University of Tennessee Press books is worthy of emulation by other publishers. Their method of providing headings (ie., "Notes to Pages 12-18") for the endnotes is especially noteworthy.

As a Past-President of the Knoxville Civil War Roundtable, I can recommend this landmark treatise without reservation.