V Books

Wonderful book, if you like Hillerman, you will really enjoy this book. Anyone I recommended this book to loved it, and looked for more by this author.

I cannot fully express how much I enjoyed this book. Beautifully written, with a story that pulls you in and holds you to the very last page. I've read lots of "Indian" books, but this is the true deal. It's the heartbreaking story of a young Apache girl and her senseless death. It is at times dark, mystical, and even humorous. I've recommended it to all my friends and they have LOVED it. Please give it a read. You won't be disappointed.

Touching without being sentimental. Eery ghosts haunt the souls on the reservation. Wonderful feeling of something ominous lurking throughout. Great storytelling. Navajo people are portrayed as real, without stereotype. The pacing was effortless, the characters multi-faceted and believable. Loved this book.

First and foremost, this is a story which is not filled with stereotypes. The cultures of the Navajo, Hopi, and the Apache are well portrayed. I was most surprised at the topic of the book in light of the fact that it is considered taboo to the Navajo. I supposed that's why the author is not of that tribe. Nevertheless, it was thoroughly entertaining, educational, and just plain well written. It deserves all the awards and accolades it has received.

With "The Death of Bernadette Lefthand," Ron Querry demonstrates an amazing accuracy for detail. His understanding of subtle differences between two Nations - the Apache and the Navajo - bring his characters to life. The juxtaposition of these modern indigenous sub-cultures takes place within the confines of an equally contradictory landscape - the brutally beautiful American Southwest. If you are interested in the people, cultures, and landscape of the Southwest, you shouldn't miss this novel.

This book is very invaluable as the author has cited many other authors and excerpts which would be lost for us otherwise. Also details on life as it was at the time are given with precision, and in a charming manner. Loeb is a treasure as it gives us an established version in the Greek (or Latin) text and a very good translation facing the text, with many notes, and a thorough index. Athenaeus for sure has saved for us many events and descriptions which help the historian in a priceless way. However, this is Volume V in Loeb, which does not mean it is Athenaeus' book V. So, with Loeb we have to be careful because their volumes do not correspond to the authors' books numbers. Yet the format is irresistible as we can hold a Loeb in the palm of our hands, read them in an airplane, in a waiting room, on a bus; we can easily place a Loeb in a purse. Very good! I would recommend Athenaeus to those who are interested in knowing how life was in Ancient Times Egypt, Greece and Asia Minor.

Athenaeus lived in the third century A.C. and was born in Naucratis in Egypt. His 'Dipnosophistae' (Banquet of Scholars) is not complete anymore but we have extensive summaries of this work.

There are thirty scholars at the banquet and each tells about a subject which is his speciality. To name a few of these subjects: antiquities (already at that time!),art,literature,gastronomy,etc. One of the main subjects is gastronomy (not something scholars are used to talk about but this is a banquet after all).

In this work are a lot of excerpts from different authors we would not know about without Athenaeus.For instance several poems of Sappho are only known because they are cited in this work of Athenaeus. Another topic is travelling (A hazardous enterprise in those days even on the Roman 'speedways').

In one of those travel stories, a large Roman ship, built for the transport of corn, is described in detail. We read for example about the facilities for the representative of Hiero (Hiero is the owner of the ship and is to busy to travel himself). These facilities were big enough for fifteen places to sleep and was divided in three large cabins. A galley - only for this representative and his family or friends - was located at the stern. Each cabin had a mosaic on the floor showing scenes from the Iliad. (Can you imagine? Such a passenger facility on a cargo ship!).

All this is very interesting but sometimes you have to read twenty tedious pages or more to read finally one interesting page. But to me that one page makes it worthwile to read the other twenty pages.

the work of athenaeus comes in seven volumes, all of them on amazon:

ISBN 0-674-99224-5
ISBN 0-674-99229-6
ISBN 0-674-99247-4
ISBN 0-674-99259-8
ISBN 0-674-99302-0
ISBN 0-674-99361-6
ISBN 0-674-99380-2

this edition has a very appealing appearance; there are even some illustrations of various drinking vessels in the back pages of volume V. each volume contains a very thorough index in the back, and volume vii, the last one, contains a 200 page comprehensive index to all of the volumes (200 pages of index should give you an idea of how much invaluable information the deipnosophistae contains).

each volume has a very readable translation with concise footnotes and crossreferences on nearly every page.

the discussion, perhaps stylistically inept, but thoroughly informative, is mostly on cuisine, as noted above, but then, there is also an intriguing book xiii, especially dedicated to women (with extensive quotations from various authors on harlots, eros (love), women, and 'lads')

to make a long story short, this edition of the deipnosophistae is a necessary addition to the shelf of any dedicated reader of the classics.

(despite the hefty price of the seven volumes combined)

There are supposed to be 7 volumes of this work in the
Loeb Classical Series published by Harvard Univ. Press.
So far, I have only been able to pull up two of them
on Amazon.com
The first volume of Athenaeus, which contains Books
I -- III, 106c (one through three, up to the part,
106c) has the ISBN: 0674992245.
The second volume of Athenaeus, which contains Books
III (106c) -- V (three, 106c through five) has the
ISBN: 0674992296.
According to the information on the inside cover flap,
there were originally many more volumes, but there still
survives a great part of the original in whole.
The "plot" of the work is a recounting of a dinner,
or supper, at which notable scholars were present, who
apparently had such incredible memories that they could
call forth citations from authors which related to almost
any subject or even food preparations that appeared in
the classical authors' works. That's pretty amazing
in itself. Might qualify this work for the fantasy-fiction
genre. But regardless of who had the knowledge, whether
is was Athenaeus himself, or his "guests," that is an
amazing knowledge of literature.
While some might find the reading, "boring," for the
true questing mind these delicious bites of knowledge
about food and authors and works are irresistible. For
instance, how many works of literature could you recall
that mention fried liver wrapped in a caul? Well, the
guest at the dinner, in Vol. 2, can rattle off the exact
authors in whose works that special term appears.
"What did they live on?" said Alice, who always took
great interest in questions of eating and drinking.
"They lived on treacle," said the Dormouse, after
thinking a minute or two. [-Alice in Wonderland-.]
By the by, how often are the two words, "scholars"
and "dinner" used in conjunction? More than you
might think -- seems the ol' boys like to gather,
gobble, and gabble. -- Robert Kilgore.

This listing is misleading. The Deipnosophists is a book in multiple volumes from the Loeb library. Please correct the listing. I am not sure how to order these books in the way that this title is listed.

The first was Abraham Lincoln, and thank God he lived to see the Civil War to its conclusion. Unfortunately, Dostoevsky died of smoking-induced emphysema before his genious was able to formulate the aims of a revolution, potentially of comparable historical import to our own. This is my analogy -- not Frank's -- but his "biography" does make my view legitimate, I think.
Dostoevsky's sway over the new generation of radical activists was profound enough that he aimed to transform the ideology of socialist revolution into the ideology of a unique Russian Christian renaissance, in opposition to the secular materialism of the civilized world. In the author's eschatalogical imagination, he envisaged a Russian revolution of sentiment that would have had the opposite effect of France's "liberty, equality, and (compulsory) fraternity" -- but he died before he was able to manifest his positive ideal in its complete force through the character of Alyosha Karamazov. Thus, it would be interesting to find out what the sequel to The Brothers Karamazov would have been and also to see how Russians would have taken such a message.
Frank's "biography" should bolster most people's initial internal response to Dostoevsky's work -- a response that most of us have to struggle to articulate.

Dostoevsky: The Mantle of the Prophet, 1871-1881 is the long-awaited final volume by Joseph Frank, Professor of Comparative Literature Emeritus at Princeton University and Professor of Comparative Literature and Slavic Languages and Literature Emeritus at Stanford University.

Previous volumes in the series are: Dostoevsky: The Seeds of Revolt, 1821-1849; Dostoevsky: The Years of Ordeal, 1850-1859; Dostoevsky: The Stir of Liberation, 1860-1865; and Dostoevsky: The Miraculous Years, 1865-1871.

It was during the final decade of his life, 1871-1881, that Dostoevsky wrote Diary of a Writer and his greatest novel, The Brothers Karamazov. Many pages of Frank's fifth volume deals with analzying these two works (140 pages for The Brothers Karamazov alone).

With impressive literary scholarship, Frank throws light on the historical, political, economic, social, cultural, and literary setting within which Dostoevsky created his works of art, novels of great psychological depth.

For example, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: "Dostoevsky, the only psychologist, by the way, from whom I had anything to learn; he is one of the happiest accidents of my life, even more so than my discovery of Stendhal."

Dostoevsky traced the roots of the evils in Russian society to a loss of religious faith. By "religious faith" he meant specifically the Christian faith of the Russian Orthodox Church. He thought the Roman Catholic Church was a distortion and perversion of true Christianity. (See the harangue Dostoevsky puts into the mouth of Prince Myshkin in Part Four, Chapter VII, of The Idiot.

Of particular interest is Frank's discussion of Dostoevsky's philosophical thinking (framed, of course, within a Christian worldview), such as his ruminations on Russian nationalism, rational egoism, and the freedom of the will, and his grave concerns over the adverse moral and political effects of atheism and nihilism.

Frank soft-pedals Dostoevsky's notorious anti-Semitism, seeking to exonerate his hero as being simply "a child of his time."

Although one finds many things to dislike about Dostoevsky, one cannot help being impressed by his literary genius. Recognizing the excellence of Dostoevsky's art, Frank devotes the lion's share of his volume not to the man himself but to the man's literary production.

While this is surely not the fault of Joseph Frank, one is depressed by the seemingly endless fare of Russian sectarian bickering and murky political maneuverings. One breathes a huge sigh of relief to escape this oppressive atmosphere.

"Dostoevsky : The Mantle of the Prophet, 1871-1881" is the fifth and final volume in Frank's extraordinary biography of Dostoevsky, a remarkable undertaking of more than a quarter century. While every volume has been exceptional and well worth reading, because they share a title and differ only in subtitle Amazon's system tends to muddle reviews of the various volumes together. This final volume covers the last decade of Dostoevsky's life, so don't buy it expecting a one-volume bio of the great writer. If you care about Dostoevsky's work find copies of the first four volumes, read them, then read this book. The series sets a superlative standard for examining a great writer's life and works, but this volume isn't really intended to stand alone, despite a short "story-to-date" intro.

A truly triumphant conclusion to a massive and passionate undertaking. Frank shows the highest standards of scholarship in being objective, fair, yet sympathetic to one of the greatest of all writers. In this final volume, we have Dostoevsky living and breathing the Russian air of his beloved land seething with social, cultural and political issues of the day. An engaged and far-seeing artist if ever there was one. The complexity and paradoxical simplicity of his life presents us a real genius often at odds with the way he would be perceived by many of his readers, yet a humane and sincere human being. Now go back and read the magnificent works he has given us from his pen.

Not until in this the fifth and final volume of Frank's biographical look at Dostoevsky's books is the issue of antisemitism fully dealt with, and good heavens what PASSIM references there are! Finally, Dostoevsky's introduction of the blood libel myth into The Brothers Karamazov got on Frank's nerves (I don't know if Frank is Jewish though): "[T]hat Dostoevsky should have introduced such material at all, no matter how topical it may have been, leaves a permanent stain on his reputation that nothing can efface.....NOW, he gives the widest possible circulation to this age-old vilification, first used in classical antiquity against the early Christians themselves." (p. 670)

Yet Frank's words for the book itself include: "genius," "grandeur," "poetic power," "symbolic elevation," "a monumental power of self-expression to his characters which rivals that of Dante's sinners and saints, Shakespeare's titanic heroes and villains, and Milton's gods and archangels....with the same superhuman majesty as the figures of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel." To save ink Frank might as well compare The Brothers Karamazov to the Old Testament. (This would be appropriate as Christianity is a leitmotif in Dostoevsky's works.)

Such a brilliant book! (Dostoevsky's, that is.) Little wonder that Einstein, someone I admire very much, also liked it a lot, antisemitism notwithstanding.

Frank's biographical criticism runs to almost 3,000 pages from Volume I-V. I'd hoped at least 300 of those pages would be devoted to The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky's masterpiece) but I got half that number.

The "mantle of prophet" which Frank refers to of course has nothing to do with antisemitism: He means that Dostoevsky was, even more than Pushkin, the prophet of the Russian radical spirit.

A long time will pass before another definitive work on Dostoevsky supersedes this multi-volume masterpiece.

I love reading this book, although Henslin does need to do some serious updates. I noticed little difference between the 7th and the 12th edition. Please update!

This is an excellent book to introduce students into the real world of Sociology. Rather than focusing on theorists and their theories, Down to Earth Sociology focuses on real-life examples and situations in which the reader can relate. The articles are user-friendly, and fun to read. A recommendation for anyone interested in the world of Sociology.

When I teach introduction to sociology, this is the book that generates the most student enthusiasm. Everyone likes it, and many students love it. They often discuss readings not assigned--they've been reading ahead, or reading off the syllabus, for their own information and enjoyment rather than because it's required. Yes, some of the readings are classics, in other words old. But they aren't useless because they describe a past social pattern rather than a current one; any good intro course should give students a feeling for how social relationships vary across time as well as place, historically as well as cross-culturally. It would be nice if Henslin added some newer readings to satisfy those students who think that sociology should be about the now, but that would mean eliminating some great readings or making the book very large. It would also be nice if a few readings could help students understand the sort of quantitative research results that are reported in newspapers and on television news programs. For most courses, I usually prefer to assemble my own bulkpack of articles for students, but in this case, although I might choose different readings, I couldn't choose better ones. Overall, Henslin does an excellent job as editor. The readings show students how sociological concepts and techniques can enrich their understanding of everyday life. And it's reasonably priced.

I read this book because I loved my sociology textbook (also by Henslin) so much. (Yeah, I'm a dork.) While some of the articles in this book are a bit outdated as another reviewer pointed out, this book has something for everyone. From the classic essay on the "Saints" and the "Roughnecks" to the humorous description of how a "Nacirema" brushes his teeth (you WILL feel sheepish when you finish reading it!!!) to the account of a sociologist "posing" as homeless person for a week, there's got to be something in here you'll find interesting.

All these articles are written from completely unbiased points of view. I highly recommend this book for everyone! Anyone who is interested in sociology, culture, people, behvaior, or life in general will love it!!

A very good book to read even if you are not a student.My only complaint is that some of this is extremely outdated,particularly the story of gangs,detailing teenage hoodlums, the"saints" etc.This had to have been written in the early 1960's.By current standards these kids were cub scouts.This book needs a more complete update to be useful to todays students

I was really impressed with this new book. It's pretty hard to come up with a new superhero concept that can catch on. Most of the best new ideas are really new riffs on old ideas. Basically this book is about a Superman-like hero who cheats on his wife and fathers 5 children with 5 different women, each of whom receives one of his 5 powers. After the hero disappear his wife tries to bring the kids all grown up together to protect the city that he is no longer there for. The story goes back and forth between these very normal half-siblings learning about each other for the first time, and dealing with becoming super-heroes and all that entails. Very enjoyable. Recommended for those who like the comic Invincible.

Thank god Captain Dynamo got himself whacked, otherwise we the readers would never have encountered Dynamo 5, five of his illegitimate children brought together after the unfaithful Captain's death by his widow Maddie Warner. Read this book and meet

SCRAP: Beautiful and alluring graduate from NYU Film school who possesses her dad's super-strength!

SLINGSHOT: Equally sexy and sophisticated heroine with the power of hypersonic fight!

SCATTERBRAIN: Would-be pro-footballer and teenager with the disturbing ability to read minds!

MYRIAD: Smooth talking womanizer who bounced around foster homes as a kid, now possessing daddy's shape-changing ability!

VISIONARY: High School nerd desperately seeking to lose his virginity, with incredible vision powers to boot!

No sooner have these five half-siblings met when they are thrown into battle against their father's old enemies now seeking to take advantage of the power-vacuum in Tower City. WHIPTAIL! THE VEIL! SYNERGY & CRYSALIS! Will they survive these monstrous foes? Buy this book, which collects Dynamo 5 issues 1 -7, and find out. Highly recommended for those who liked Robert Kirkman's Invincible, and for those readers who are tired of having their favorite superheroes recycled.

Gage: "Can I just say that you are fine?"
Bridget: "You do realize that if Maddie's telling the truth, I'm your half-sister, right?"

With the untimely passing of Captain Dynamo, Tower City is bereft of its most powerful guardian. As supervillains eagerly take advantage of the unprotected city, Captain Dynamo's widow, Maddie Warner, in response, gathers 5 young people whom her husband had illegitimately fathered. These kids come from disparate backgrounds and upbringings. Each offspring boasts one of the various super powers which Captain Dynamo had had. Raw in training, dealing with newly-erupted familial issues, and coping with their recently unlocked talents, these five complete strangers will have to do something their old man never had to: become a team player...

In hindsight, I'm a bit surprised no one's come up with this premise before. It's certainly an intriguing one. Published by Image Comics and making its debut in early 2007, DYNAMO 5 is set in the same universe as Jay Faerber's other superhero family saga NOBLE CAUSES. In fact, it was in issue #18 of NOBLE CAUSES that Captain Dynamo met his death at the hands of a contract killer named Widowmaker, who incidentally is still at large and plying her trade. But while NOBLE CAUSES delves deeper into the soap opera elements of its cast, DYNAMO 5 does tend to focus equally on the young folks' personal lives and their thrilling exploits as the Dynamo 5.

This trade paperback, titled DYNAMO 5: POST-NUCLEAR FAMILY VOLUME 1, collects the monthly series' absorbing first seven issues. Really, I can't put it more plainly than this: DYNAMO 5 is just a ripping good, old-fashioned entertainment. Jay Faerber's writing keeps it light yet suspenseful and on point. He definitely knows where he's going with this. As well, there are several corkscrew surprises thrown in to maintain a keen interest. And Faerber fleshes out his characters enough that you get drawn in and want to know more about them. I'm enjoying the relationship dynamics among the five half-siblings, as well as their interactions with the cold and demanding, sometimes maternal but mostly scheming Maggie Warner, who definitely is keeping her own set of secrets. No complaints about the artwork, either. Mahmud A. Asrar is an excellent artistic find; his visual storytelling is bold and dynamic, and will keep you eagerly eyeballing these pages.

I like that the individual talents the kids inherit are pretty diverse. It's a pretty interesting mix. Scrap (real name Bridget, an NYU Film School grad who currently works at a movie theater) has super-strength and is my favorite Dynamo. Scatterbrain (Gage, a popular high school football jock) is a telepath. Visionary (Hector, a much bullied half-Asian high school geek) has wide-ranged vision abilities. Myriad (Spencer, an orphan and a playboy) can assume any identity. Slingshot (Olivia, a highly motivated college student, who's looking more and more like the field leader) can fly really fast. On the surface, these assorted superpowers don't translate to a team who'll simply cow and overpower villains (with Scrap being the only muscle, as it is). It's looking more like precise execution and teamwork are what'll tide this bunch over. Oh, and, naturally, a big heaping of luck. With dangerous supervillains constantly popping out of the woodwork and the shady government agency F.L.A.G. persisting in not minding its beeswax, I'm curious to see how imaginative and clever Faerber will be regarding Dynamo 5's battle tactics and strategies. And, while these young 'uns seem to be handling their angst relatively well, Faerber can't possibly keep them on such an even emotional keel, can he? (The answer is no.)

DYNAMO 5 has got me hooked and has me salivating for each new issue. Most often, at this early stage is when a comic book is at its best and freshest and most inventive, when the writer and artist are the most hyped up and still discovering new things about their creations. So why not get onboard? Seven exciting issues, collected here, and, all I can say is: so far, so very good.

Dynamo 5 vol. 1 is definitely worth the price! A great start to a fun series with interesting characters. It's paced very fast so a lot is happening in few pages. This isn't a slow-burn comic like something Bendis would write. This comic is the equivalent to a summer action movie. A very well done action movie.

That is also what it somewhat suffers from--the pace. It's a lot of characters thrown at you with little back story. Hopefully that will be resolved in future volumes, but as a standalone, the characters are a little thin because of the pace and space limitations. But what is there definitely tantalizes the reader on what's to come.

As for the story, it's not exactly breaking new ground in parts. And with some ideas it felt less of an homage to the BIG TWO publishers and more of a direct pilfering (Lizard Man formula?). While an argument can be made that everything in comics has been done before already, I would've preferred a little more originality.

But all of those are really minor quibbles with a book that is quite frankly heads and tails above the majority of comics out there now. And the concept of splitting a Superman-like character's powers into his offspring is really ingenious. I'll certainly be buying any future volumes that come out.

This first volume of the new Dynamo 5 series offers tremendous value with seven issues for ten bucks. The nearly omnipotent, but late Captain Dynamo sired five illegitimate children, each possessing one of his superpowers. When his widow Maddie Warner discovers his legacy, she contacts each of the offspring and assembles them into a team. Dynamo 5 battles villains in Tower City with Maddie as a Professor X-like leader. The story offers strong characters and several plot twists and the artwork is also excellent. I bought this based on an enthusiastic Pipeline Podcast recommendation and was fully impressed with the book, enjoying it more than Marvel's comparable Young Avengers series.

This is a lovely book, full of knowledge and wisdom, a pleasure to read, an indispensable companion for travellers who care about what they're eating. If you are only thinking of going, cook some of these Indonesian recipes and taste the islands for yourself. I only wish there were a guidebook like this for every country where people still know how to eat well. -Sri Owen, author, Indonesian Regional Cooking

The authors have written a series of Eat Smart books that no traveler to foreign countries should be without. Each book covers a separate country--Eat Smart in Turkey, Eat Smart in Brazil, Eat Smart in Indonesia and Eat Smart in Mexico--and is chock full of information that you won't find elsewhere within the covers of one easy-to-carry paperback. Individual chapters cover such topics as the history of the country's cuisine, regional foods, how to shop in the local markets, mail-order sources for suppliers of ingredients, and a collection of recipes for typical dishes found in that country. Especially useful is each book's extensive menu guide, listing menu terms alphabetically in the language of the foreign country, with a description of the dish in English. That section is followed by a chapter titled "Foods & Flavors"--listing the foreign terms for foods, spices, kitchen utensils and cooking techniques, with an English translation/description. These books are well researched, accurate and very informative. Highly recommended. --Sharon Hudgins, editor, Chile Pepper magazine

Soundly researched, clearly written, artistically illustrated, "Eat Smart in Indonesia" is the most comprehensive and readable survey of the whole scope of Indonesian gastronomy I have ever come across. It is equally valuable as a solid reference work for the scholar and as exotic inspiration for the chef or home entertainer. Bill Dalton, founder, Moon Travel Guides; author, "Indonesian Handbook"

For a country of 17,000 islands and 670 dialects, and complex traditions, religion and culture, no one-including Indonesians-can claim to know more about Indonesia's traditional food tastes than the authors of Eat Smart in Indonesia. Their guide is the first ever published with in-depth information about the unique and diverse food of Indonesia. -William W. Wongso, culinary educator, president of William F & B Management, Jakarta, Java

This little book is essential for travelers to a country where food is riotously varied, delicious and, to most of us, utterly unfamiliar. It begins with a brief historical survey of the cuisine, citing the contributions of successive immigrant or colonial groups, then slices the other way, with sections on Indonesia's major culinary regions and their specialties and characteristics. Recipes, a listing of US sources for ingredients, then phrases in Indonesian all follow. Two alphabetical listings are the heart of the book: One is of menu items, with brief descriptions and notations; the other is of "foods and flavors" (and utensils, cooking methods and so on), in Indonesian, with English translations or explanations. The whole is thorough, information-packed and mouthwatering.

This is by far a must-own collection for the Tales from the Crypt fans.
It features original comic books from 50s and 60s.

I was too young for the originals, but the reprints in the late-80s/early-90s were amazing.

The only issue I have is that the ink is sooo freakin' glossy that you get glare from overhead lighting.

Johnny Craig is the best artist!

There is an overuse of exclamation points in the writing, which can be irritating but the drawing is top notch and it's worthwhile to purchase for the fan of the old comics. Graham Ingels' work is the best of all.

I just can't get over how nice these EC Archives are. Printed on high quality paper and done with superb color. These books are a great way to get the old EC comics with out going broke. I can't wait for Gemstone to print the rest. A+ 10 out of 10!

The story of EC Comics really is one of the most intriguing in the lore of comic history. EC's founder, Max Gaines is really the father of the modern comic, having been the first one to devise the idea of printing newspaper comic strip re-prints into a magazine format. Gaines was also co-publisher of All-American Comics, the sister company to National Periodical Publications, AKA DC Comics, which published titles such as All Star Comics, Green Lantern, and The Flash. Gaines was bought out by his partner and eventually formed EC Comics, which then stood for Educational Comics but later would change to Entertaining Comics.

Gaines was killed in a boating accident, leaving his son William Gaines to reluctantly take over the company. Gaines soon changed the focus of the company and began to concentrate on publishing titles with horror, Sci-Fi, war, and suspense themes. Thus, Gaines created a legend. EC had perhaps the finest stable of artists ever assembled in one company that included Al Feldstein and Harvey Kurtzman who also wrote and edited most of the titles, along with other greats such as Johnny Craig, Graham Ingels, Wally Wood, Jack Davis, Al Williamson, Bernie Krigstein, George & Marie Severin, Reed Crandall, Basil Wolverton, Joe Orlando, and Frank Frazetta.

EC's horror comics were well ahead of their time and were really the pre-cursor of magazines like Creepy & Eerie. The stories in Tales from the Crypt, Haunt of Fear, and Vault of Horror were often quite gruesome and gory. Because of this, EC became the prime target of Psychiatrist Dr. Fredric Wertham who, in 1954 published Seduction of the Innocent, a book that blamed the violence and horror in comic books for juvenile crime and delinquency. A Congressional investigation resulted in the formation of the Comics Code Authority to censor comic books. Books had to be submitted and receive the stamp of approval and subjects like zombies & vampires were prohibited. While the CCA had no legal authority, most magazine distributors would not carry a comic if it did not have the code stamp. EC was forced to cancel their horror titles and shift it's focus to dramatic titles like "MD" and "Extra!", as well as the humor title Mad which was later changed to magazine format.

Much like it's Crypt Keeper, EC would not stay dead, thanks in large part to zealous fans and the efforts of Russ Cochran and Gemstone publishing that began re-printing the EC Comics in various formats in the 70's with the Complete EC Library, and then actual comics in the 80's and 90's. Among the latest projects are the EC Archives which collects several issues of the original EC comics into gorgeous hardcover editions.


Tales from the Crypt may seem tame by today's standards where blood and gore oozes off the pages, but when these stories were originally published back in the early 1950's, they were well ahead of their time in terms of their subject matter and artwork. While most comic art of the 50's was bland, mass produced house art, EC gave its artists unrivaled creative freedom. It's the reason why those issues are so highly sought after by collectors today.

The stories in Tales From the Crypt rarely deviated from the formula...they almost always ended with a shocking, ironic twist with a character getting their just desserts. Even when following this pattern, the gifted talent always kept things fresh and innovative. Inside these 212 pages you'll find stories featuring werewolves, mad scientists, zombies, animated limbs, ghosts, raving madmen (and women) and a host of other terrors. One of the most ghoulish tales is Johnny Craig's "Midnight Snack" in which a sleep walking man discovers he's been digging up bodies and eating them. This was pretty intense stuff for 1951. This book features the talents of legends Wally Wood, Graham Ingels, Johnny Craig, Jack Davis, Joe Orlando, and colorist Marie Severin.


These editions feature re-mastered color and also include special features such as an interview with Nancy Gaines, the widow of EC Comics founder Bill Gaines. The book lists for $50 but you can definitely find it online much cheaper making it well worth the price. If you've never read EC Comics before it's an experience you must have!

REVIEWED BY TIM JANSON

I am not a Harlan fan, my husband is. I wanted this for his Christmas, now it's April and no book. I'm curious what the hold up is. Harlan is such a prolific prognosticator I can't imagine what is keeping him from print. I'd love to find out when the book is due. C. Nelson

When they first appeared in the early 1970s, THE GLASS TEAT and THE OTHER GLASS TEAT were instant underground classics. These two books collected the speculative-fiction writer (he'll throw things at you if you call him a science-fiction writer or, God help us, a sci-fi writer) Harlan Ellison's television reviews for the LOS ANGELES FREE PRESS. Ellison's reviews set a new standard for brilliant, savagely funny, mordant criticism of the slop poured onto us over the airwaves by those who think they know what we want to see. In many ways, these reviews invented modern television criticism. Unfortunately, they don't stay around long; they've now appeared three times, from three different publishers, and apparently their first publication (1970-1971) was pulled by a nervous publisher. It's good to see them back in print.

While waiting patiently for this new edition to roll of the presses, I found a copy of "The Other Glass Teat" at my university library. It does not disappoint! Hilarious AND thought provoking, Mr. Ellison knows how to hold our collective faces up to the mirror and show us our own twisted, sad, surreal reality we've created but won't own up to. To top it off these essays are about an EARLIER TV era. Only Harlan can save our souls.

It seems that these two books are destined forever to do battle with their own publication. Due out some months ago, and pre-announced in various publications as available as early as May of this year, once again the Teats seem to somehow struggle with the light of day. My autographed copies of the Popular Library editions from the late '70s must continue to wait for this newest version before being put happily and hermetically to rest once and for all. In the meantime, they serve as reminder fair and foul, proud and profane, incorrigible and indignant, of how far we think we have come and how far we know, though will never admit, we still have to go. If they are not required reading in every college level social science, recent history, and media course, they should be. Ellison's words changed and continue to change the way people think and believe. There can be no higher praise for a writer.

Ah, yes! Return with us to those thrilling days of yesteryear when "politically correct" meant being able to think for yourself. I first was referred to this scathingly accurate view of television by the bibliography section of Stephen King's Danse Macarbe. How is this 30 year old collection of essays relevant to the world of 1998, you ask? Ellison's essays took to task some of the trends that have since become the norm in network programming. Mediocrity is rewarded. Any content that dares to challenge the viewer to think for themself (thereby offending the religious right, the society of blind, left-handed dentists without tonsils, etc.)is pulled off the air. Every few years a "new" show is aired which is just an updated version of an old show with a different cast. (Murphy Brown, basically a modern version of the old Mary Tyler Moore show from the early '70's, to name but one example.)If you're fond of intelligent, provocative criticism, especially in a case where it's been so richly deserved, this is a literary benchmark. A condensed version of these volumes is the author's foreward to "Strange Wine", a viciously sarcastic essay entitled " Revealed at last! What REALLY killed the dinosaurs!( And you don't look too good yourself)" As long as you're at it, pick up a copy of Strange Wine as well. The foreward alone is worth the price of admission. Harlan Ellison pulls no punches in his views of the television industry and certainly can speak from experience, with credits for "The Young Lawyers","The Outer Limits", as well as authoring what many Star Trek fans consider to be the best episode of them all, " The City on the Edge of Forever".

I love Either/Or. I really relate to a lot of the philosophy. I've heard the first one is often considered more interesing, but I related more to the second. Probably too long and dense for people who either aren't serious about philosophy, or can't handle reading really long books.

You will have the most fun reading the first book of Either/Or. The book is actually the master fisherman's best hook -much like Socrates was a midwife of thoughts- to bring you out into reflection of the question at hand: Either the esthetic or the ethical life. This book and the second part is this elaborate question concerning two opposing ways of life. This first book is ironically and seductively entertaining. He deals with various subjects like Mozart, Drama, unhappiness, Boredom and finallly the seduction of young girl. If anything else, read the last two portions of the book. One of the things that I like about the way K writes is his ability to use words from other disciplines and to incorporate them into his language so beautifully that reading him is literally an excursion.

Kierkegaard's brilliance lies in his ability to take such deeply personal experiences--love, lust, sorrow--and comment universally in a way that is at least unmatched in philosphy and probably in all of literature. He understands life in a way that seems obvious but is in actual fact merely fundamental to all of us. The book is a collection of papers and texts on a variety of subjects that at first seem disconnected but in the end all tie perfectly together with the truly brilliant "seducer's diary". Philosophy is a literary discipline that generally provokes either intimidation or a feeling of pointlessness (by this I mean that people wonder why should I care what someone else thinks if it is all unprovable anyway). I feel that Kierkegaard represents everything that is good about philosphy and is worth an attempt at least even if one is trepedatious. This book will not overwhelm you in complex language or termanology, rather it will leave you invigorated with fresh ideas and new questions about everything around. Everyone should read this book.

Although Kierkegaard had written other books before this one, mainly some literary critical works as well as his dissertation THE CONCEPT OF IRONY, this is the book that begins what he calls his "Authorship." The works constituting his Authorship have two main things in common: 1) they are all written by Pseudonymous Authors that represent points of view that do not precisely correspond with Kierkegaard's beliefs and 2) they are intent on delineating what Kierkegaard called the three stages of existence: the aesthetic, the ethical, and religious stages.

Of all the great philosophical writers, Kierkegaard was one of the greatest masters of literary form. In each work, he adapts a style and form that is appropriate to the particular point of view he is attempting to illustrate. In EITHER/OR I, he is concerned with showing various aspects of the Aesthetic Stage of Existence. Unlike the later stages of existence, the Aesthetic is extremely diverse, and can take more forms and be expressed in a larger number of shapes. Kierkegaard therefore writes a series of essays that bring out various aspects of the Aesthetic stage. Some of these are among his most famous writings. His essay on Mozart's DON GIOVANNI, "The Immediate Erotic Stages or The Musical-Erotic" ranks among the most famous pieces of musical criticism ever written. Perhaps even more famous is "The Seducer's Diary," in which an individual records his attempts to snare a young woman, though more in the sense of a Mephistopheles than a Don Juan. My favorite section, and the one that illustrates an especially developed form of the aesthetic is "The Rotation of Crops," in which our anonymous author attempts to deal with the one great difficulty facing the Aesthetic Mode of Existence: boredom. As he writes, "Boredom is the root of all evil." Therefore, the challenge to the Aesthetic is to thrust away continually boredom, and in this essay our writer provides a guide to making life as interesting as possible. We are required to continually find new friends, new jobs, new interests, since all obligations lead to tedium. Marriage is, of course, to be avoided, since this is boring (the contrary to this will be asserted in EITHER/OR II). That this task is impossible is taken up in later works by Kierkegaard.

EITHER/OR begins in classic Kierkegaardian fashion. Kierkegaard was probably the greatest master of the Preface in the history of literature. His Prefaces are such masterpieces that they can profitably be read on their own, and he himself delighted in writing them to such a degree that he wrote one book that consisted in nothing but Prefaces. In the one to both volumes of EITHER/OR, a gentleman by the name of Victor Eremita explains how he accidentally discovered the papers filling the two volumes that had been hidden in a desk. He separates them into two groups, "A" and "B". He possesses no great certainty as to the authorship, but believes that one person may have written the first group, and another the second group. Or, alternately, that the author of the "A" papers may have written the "B" papers later in life. The latter is probably what Kierkegaard wants us to believe, for it is his fundamental belief that the Aesthetic mode of existence is doomed to failure, and that it is possible (though not necessary) that this could lead to a higher level of existence, The Ethical. This new stage is dealt with in the second volume of EITHER/OR.

Everything I have read by Kierkegaard, Either/Or, The Seducer, Deep Park or whatever has the same central argument- the relative merits of manipulating the situation as opposed to doing or not doing whatever some inner voice tells him.

Men who get along well with women have a certain knowing of what the woman wants and use this understanding to manipulate her.
Kierkegaard is obsessed with the morality of this, it being less than mutual complete openness. In addition, when one understands a woman intuitively one loses a bit of one's SELF or inner being. This inner being tends naturally toward passivity for those who sense it. The man is "sensitive". An understanding female friend might give him the advice, "She wants YOU to be more mechanical." In Kierkegaard's view going to Deer Park presents the same sort of difficulty. He wants to go, but he does not want to decide to go. The act of decision makes him less sensitive and more mechanistic; therefore the decision to go can produce more inner stress than would a natural leader's decision to enter into a war. Kierkegaard looks for a justification for his indecision and comes to Christianity. But Christianity is "absurd" because it involves "eternal truth occuring in time." To Kierkegaard's mentality a great decision made based upon inner-felt moral grounds is easier than a small decision with no moral significance. In the first case he is empowered by the moral ground that the decision afferms; in the second case the inner self receives no affermation. In this sense morality is a crutch and an order-giver; morality commands as well as empowers; therefore, the individual acts contrary to his own interests and contrary even at times to his own understanding.
To Kierkegaard morality is a part of the inner self, not an external standard or system. Kierkegaard is good to understand, but a bad example to copy.

I flunked algebra in high school. Now I'm taking a 095 algebra class at a local collage and now I'm getting A's and B's. It's a great book and ours came packaged with lecture CDs. It maybe the best algebra text book but you still have to do practice problems over and over to get good grades they don't just happen because the book was so good.

I used this book in my first back-to-college algebra class, and it is a great book. Easy to understand explanations and step-by-step instructions made algebra way easier than I remembered! Please note: the companion solutions manual has many wrong answers. The book itself, however, is great. If your class is using this book, you will do well.

I would really like to thank Mr. Angel for putting together a great book. I have to admit that I was afraid of Algebra until I started studying from this book.

Thanks !

I wish he had written all of my text books. Everything is clearly laid out with examples that are broken down into small steps to make understanding even clearer.

The book was laid out well and establishes a good flow with the reader. Contains helpful drawings and diagrams. This book is well suited for visual learners.