V Books

I know of no other book that explains the physics behind protein structure in such a clear and accessible way. The illustrations are simply fantastic, and the book is written in a very lively way. Highly recommended. It would be the ideal text book for students in structural bioinformatics or biophysics, but it's a pity that it is so expensive.

A clearly, yet thoroughly physical point of view constitutes the framework of this book. Written by pioneers in the field of protein physics, the book amazingly guides the readers to "think" of protein and raises fundamental questions in the field of soft-condensed matter physics. A must for everyone who wants to have a correct and scientific vision of proteins.

A book of worth from the legendary institution, PhysTech (Moscow). Ptitsyn's 'Protein Physics' is a valuable source of information on folding thermodynamics and kinetics both to beginners and professionals in this (and related) fields. No more words. Strongly recommended!

Excellent book for both beginners and experts. I will recommend it to students as a source of initial knowledge not only on proteins, but also on biopolymers and biophysics in general. For instance, presentation of forces is superb. I am also positive that every expert will find new non trivial insights on great many subtle points of this difficult topic.

This is a magnificent book, remarkable for its breadth, depth, and accessibility.

Elegant discussions of background material including topics in quantum chemistry
and thermodynamics render this book a self-contained tutorial on the many-faceted problems of
protein physics. Because of its structure as a series of increasingly sophisticated lectures, it should be accessible to a wide variety of audiences with diverse backgrounds.

To top it off, the text is beautifully written, at points nearly poetic including even a Greek chorus, a pleasure to read and to study. I am reminded of a few other great lecture series in science where razor-sharp intellects explain complicated phenomena from soup to nuts with wisdom and wit.

Anyone from professional scientist to motivated novice in almost any analytic discipline should find this a valuable introduction and detailed study of protein physics.

R. C. Penner, Professor of Math and Physics,
University of Southern California

Great item. Scott Kurtz is hilarious. I had the pleasure of meeting him. He is a great guy.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: PvP is a wonderful comic strip! If you're an 80's child, gaming nerd, or even just a fan of well produced and genuinely funny comics...you should find a lot to like here. This is another wonderful collection of great strips. If you're followed the comic online, you may run into some storylines that you've gone through before. Personally, I think I've enjoyed reading through them again in the collected format more than I did getting the daily "zing!" comics (not to say that I don't still read it online...).

When i first meet PVP webcomic i fell in love with all the staff, i could easily identify myself with every one of them in diferent levels, then i became a complete fanboy of Kurtz's work.

This PVP Volume is as good as the first volume was, and a easy way to own the comics that i in my country would never find in a local store.

Scott Kurtz is a very funny and very talented individual. His mirth and ability to point out oddities in gaming culture is perfect! I, of course, am an avid reader of his online comic and am usually quick to purchase these compilations. Even if you are not into gaming, you'll learn to love the characters of PvP.

Scott Kurtz creats PVP daily online, and monthly for Image comics. But, if you can't get to either or those, or even if you can, you should grab ths compilation.
As a follow up to "PVP at Large", this book collects PVP issues 7-12 from the Image Comics run. In side, you find storylines dealing with: Francis thinking he is in the future, Jade leaving the group and returning, Star Wars-Galaxies, John Edwards, Cole's love of Swedish 70's Pop bands, and even more.
Scott's obvious love of pop culture helps elevate the comic to another level, and make it worth a read even by people who don't play games, read comics, or know Wolverine's real name. Because you don't have to.

Lutyens, the architect of Queen Mary's Dolls' House, also designed the city of New Delhi and the Viceroy's House, one of the largest and most unique palaces in the world. Sadly, he was one of the world's greatest artists, but is remembered only for this (comparatively) tiny tourist attraction.

Tourists, architectural students, and historians should buy this book. This is the only thorough analysis of any of Lutyens' buildings, and as such, is an important historical document above and beyond its tourist appeal.

I was so enchanted by Royal Collection Official Guide Book to Queen Mary's Dolls' House that I ordered this one figuring (correctly) that there would be other unique pictures. This is the better of the two books - nearly three times as long and filled with more pictures, especially detail shots of the tiny furnishings and decorations. I am charmed by Cripp's method of showing scale: he poses the tiny cricket bat next to a regulation cricket ball, and the little golf clubs next to a real golf ball. This also includes a section on how the house is aging: fading wallpaper, damaged paint, etc. All of the pictures, except for a few that are historic, are in color. This is unfortunately out of print, and may be more expensive, so the purchaser will have to weigh issues of cost and availability for themselves. I think that either would do as a souvenier.

If someone is really interested, I would recommend getting both books. The Royal Collection Official Guidebook is a pretty good buy at $11.95 and a nice supplement to this one. A very few of the shots are in both, but not enough to make them redundant to the person who wants all the information they can get. Generally, the duplicate shots are slightly large in the S-W book. To compare and contrast the two, while the S-W book has more of everything, the RC book still has some unique shots. The photographs in this book take in the entire room, while the RC book often shoots the room at an angle, cutting off part of the room, but what is shown is sometimes in better focus and a bit larger. To compare the shots of the Queen's bedroom, the Stewart-Wilson shot shows the entire bedroom. The Royal Collection shot, at an angle , reveals some additional details such as the fire screen and the chinoiserie cabinet, but cuts off the exteme left-hand side of the room. (Her Majesty has apparently been rearranging her decorative items since the S-W book.) The S-W detail of the 18th century pietre-dure table concentrates on showing the design on the top. The RC detail shows more of the table and the objects normally on it. The historical sections, revealing how the house came to be built are the most different, and the RC book has more pictures of people who participated in creating the doll house and of the room in which it now sits with the Phillip Connard mural. The captions are overlapping, but not identical, and so one gains more information by having both.

To further correct the first reviewer, the Doll's House is certainly not a copy of Windsor Castle. It is nothing like it. Windsor Castle is a CASTLE - stones and very old, and big. The Doll's House is an "ideal home" of the early 1020's - albeit intended for royalty and not for your average Joneses.

England's Queen Mary--grandmother of the current Queen Elizabeth II--commissioned the construction of her extraordinary dollhouse (or "dolls' house" as it is referred to here) in 1921, during her own reign. It resides at Windsor Castle, as it has since being constructed there. Designed by Edward Lutyens (famous for his graceful furniture), the house is a reproduction of Windsor Castle right down to the last nail--almost literally.

David Cripps' photography beautifully captures the interiors of this amazing dollhouse, from the grand to the plebian. Here is the linen closet, each batch of towels tied with different-colored ribbon to denote whether they were intended for the nursery, the staff, or the kitchen. Here is a lacquer cabinet with gilded stand, dovetailed working drawers, and gold-leafed decoration. Here is a bed, complete with pillows, bolsters, sheets, blankets, and even a tiny walnut-handled bedwarmer. The toilet, complete with toilet paper discreetly placed in a bowl alongside, really works. The toothbrushes are made of ivory and have bristles made from the hair of a goat's inner ear. In the cellar, bottles of Chateau Margaux are properly corked and waxed and labeled. The pantry shows real bows of Fry's Chocolates sharing space with McVitie & Price biscuits, barley sugar candies in hefty glass candy jars, and Frank Cooper's Seville Marmalade in squat jars tied with brown paper and string.

The garage houses a miniature bicycle with brakes "in perfect working order," not to mention a Rudge motorcycle and sidecar, a seven-seater Rolls Royce limousine-landaulet, a Vauxhall, a "Sunbeam open tourer," and two Daimlers. Gorgeous royal crests are hand-painted on each. The house even has its own petrol pumps and fire appliances, as was normal for large houses in that era.

The house's garden is splendid despite the absence of a single living thing. The lawn, made of cut green velvet, boasts several tiny mowers (both motor-powered and not), and the nearby garden has its own lovely benches, hoes, spades and the like. There is even a robin's nest, complete with eggs, and a tiny, tiny snail.

Perhaps the most extraordinary thing in the house is the book collection. Famous authors were asked to contribute their own works. Arthur Conan Doyle obliged by submitted "How Watson Learned the Trick," an original 500-word short story done in his own handwriting. The bookplates for each of the books were designed by beloved Winnie-the-Pooh illustrator Ernest Shepard. Rudyard Kipling submitted not only two poems, but illustrated them himself as well. Other well-known authors who gave their own works to the Queen's house included G. K. Chesterton, Joseph Conrad, Robert Graves, Aldous Huxley, Hilaire Belloc, Rose Macauley, W. Somerset Maugham, and Vita Sackville-West. Topping off the fine works of this distinguished crowd are the leather-bound autograph books--one each for famous folks from stage and screen, famous folks from the military, and famous politicans.

There is even a room for storing the scepter, crowns and other regalia--all featuring flawless gemstones!

The details are endlessly fascinating and the house and its furnishings so well-constructed that without a tennis ball or coin or some other everyday real object, you easily forget that everything your eye falls upon here is miniature. For those who cannot get to Windsor Castle themselves to view the house in person, this book offers a very fine tour.

With a couple of corrections of the first review, I'd like to make sure that it's known that Queen Mary did not commission this dollshouse. It was the original brain child of the Princess Marie Louise, who spearheaded the creation of the house. Queen Mary was "extremely surprised" but agreed. The initial shell of the house was erected in Lutyen's office, then removed to the drawing room of his house in Mansfield Street in London.

It was unveiled to the press, once completed, in the Mansfield Street house, then moved and reconstructed in the Palace of Arts at Wembley. It went from there to Windsor Castle, then to an exhibition at Olympia. In February of 1925, the house was returned to Windsor Castle. The Daily Mail donated a glass case through which we can now view the dollshouse in Windsor Castle.

This wonderful book has photographs of the letters written by Princess Marie Louise to all the firms and manufacturers involved in the dollshouse creation, as well as numerous photographs of the interior and furnishings. Pictures of tiny dollshouse ledgers, keys, and even a garden snail grace this book.

After their popular "Incredibly Strange Films" book, the Re/Search team shifts their focus to music, specifically to fringe genres represented primarily by forgotten vinyl releases of the past. Interviewing assorted individuals, both music lovers and cult stars alike, V.Vale and Andrea Juno explore their record collections and gather anecdotes about beloved artists, treasured finds, and favorite album covers. In the first volume, Ivy and Lux of The Cramps recall their discovery of rockabilly and garage rock through thrift store scavenging, and members of the Phantom Surfers discuss surf and hot rod music, monster party albums, and Beatles knockoffs. Brian and Stuart of San Francisco's Amok Books talk about lounge and exotica music (Les Baxter, Arthur Lymann, Korla Pandit), and the founders of Norton Records detail the strange careers of Hasil Adkins and Esquerita. There's also chats with Eartha Kitt, exotica legend Martin Denny, and Jean Jacques Perrey and Gershon Kingsley on their work both together and solo. Throughout the pages are hundreds of B&W photos and images of classic retro album covers. A companion CD was released featuring selections from some of the records covered. These books are an excellent read for those drawn to the bizarre, the shameless, and the ridiculous in music history. These are the unsung artists who never get mentioned in traditional music guides. Definitely recommended.

This book was good therapy- it was reasuring to find that there were many people out there like me that spent a great deal of their spare time combing thriftstores and yardsales to find Martin Deny albums or twisted versions of Beatles tunes sung by washed up celebrities.

Here's a simple test to see if you'd like this book: you're at the local thrift store when from the corner of your eye you see a record of Buddy Hacket singing favorite Yiddish songs. Do you...

A)keep looking for your Partrige Family lunchpail that your mother gave away 18 years ago.

B)Break into a cold sweat and lunge for the record with trembling hands.

If your answer is B maybe you should check out this book.

This book mostly consists of interviews with people discussing their unusual record collections. If that sounds like your bag, here it is. Of course, I dug it.

If you're into discovering strange records this is definitely a book to read. The book is separated into chapters. Some are dedicated to musicians and others are to individual record collectors, which are amusing. It gives them the chance to talk about the kooky records they've discovered. There's a nice chapter dedicated to Yma Sumac, which taught me things I didn't know. Apparently she had a concert in 1987, too bad I was only four. She sums up her career rather nicely and expresses the problem she had at her comeback. "I can't sing with just two musicians!"

This is the definitive book on thrift store music finds. Of course, because of its publication it's become increasingly difficult to make good thrift scores since it's opened up the field to many more collectors. But at least we've still got ebay! If the Velvet Underground can lay claim to launching 1000 bands, then the "Incredibly Strange Music" series is responsible for launching thousands of record collections.

Yep. I get every comic out these days but this was the best comic I think I have ever read. I can't wait for more.

Scott Pilgrim is getting better and better in my opinion. O'Malley seems to amp up his penciling in this volume --- better detail, great action. The story is just o-so-cool.

Can't wait for vol. 4 when Scott gets it together!

Basically, I picked this book up at half price during a closing sale at a store. I leafed through it when I bought it, and thought it looked pretty good. 3~4 reads later, I have to say that this is one of the best manga [though I really hesitate to call it that: it kind of resides in the space between manga, comic, and book] I've read. It's realistic, has really funny jokes, and isn't afraid to be wacky - the thing is that these otherwise completely outlandish moments fit perfectly within the book as it stands. A must-read [I currently have the first two books and Lost at Sea coming to my house from this series]!

I really enjoyed the development of Scott's relationships in this volume. A whole lot happened, and somethings are too random to recall, but overall, it was an enjoyable read. I like how O'Malley takes his time to reveal Scott's relationships with people through a series of flashbacks, where in each one, you get a small piece of the puzzle.

I can still barely believe that the Scott Pilgrim series is as good as it is. Author Bryan Lee O'Malley has taken a relationship drama and infused it with numerous references to video games, indie music, manga, and other niche areas of popular culture to create a world where characters are completely fine with breaking out into a massive, over-the-top fight that involves the battleground imploding at the end.
Scott Pilgrim, for those of you who aren't caught up, is a 23-year-old slacker who lives in a small Canadian town around Toronto. He is in a bad band named Sex Bob-Omb along with the completely cool (so cool he has no emotions) Stephen Stills and the angry Kim Pine (whom he dated in high school). After breaking up with a 17-year-old high school girl named Knives Chau, Scott began dating Ramona Flowers, an American now living in Canada and working as an Amazon.ca delivery girl. However, before Scott can officially date Ramona, he must defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends. He has already taken out 2, but the next on the list, Todd Ingram, may prove to be more than Scott can handle.
Picking up pretty much exactly where the second volume, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, left off, Scott and Ramona have just learned that Todd is dating Natalie V. "Envy" Adams, Scott's girlfriend before Knives who ripped his heart out. Through flashbacks, we learn how Envy met Scott as a shy anime fan and eventually turned into a rock goddess. If that weren't bad enough, Todd is a vegan, and in Scott's world, vegans attain vast psychic powers that make him a much more formidable opponent than Matthew Patel and Lucas Lee.
As usual, the battles don't take up the whole book; most of the pages are devoted to hilarious character studies. Scott's roommate, Wallace Wells, is just as funny as ever, with his snide comments about Envy and his platonic love of Ramona. Knives is great due to the sheer sadness of her situation (I kind of feel bad for her, but she is responsible for some very funny and heartfelt situations). New characters like Envy and Lynette, Envy's drummer who has a biomechanical arm, are fun as well. But the book is also full of great moments that don't deal with characters. The existence of a save point in the world was one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. And of course, the fights just keep getting better. Ramona shows that she can hold her own and that her little handbag is just full of surprises.
The only thing I have to say that is negative is that I just can't get a good feel for the art. It is (as far as I know) intentionally cheap, but there are times when I can't tell who certain characters are or when the flashbacks end. Still, it isn't too much of a problem.
I don't care what excuses you may have for not reading Scott Pilgrim, get on it now! The story is great and the humor is fantastic.

Vampirates. Highly entertaining. Especially when one of them starts chewing their way through a research vessel of Hollywood wankers. I will definitely read the rest of this. A film crew out to do a project find a man at the bottom of the ocean, and he is still alive. They get a lot more than they bargained for.

The artwork in this trade is in itself enough to recommend to buy it. They should really show a preview of the inside. It is done in an great blend of black white and red tones. Add that to a killer plot line about vanpire pirates and you have a great read. I'm so stoked that the second version is out. The first part where they set up the story could not have been done any better as far as I'm concerned. There's no wonder they sold out the first issues.

I don't read many new graphic novels or comics these days (I'm fifty years old), but my son said I had to read this. He claimed it was worth my attention. Boy, was he ever right about that-- the art, the writing, the whole package is PERFECT! Can't wait to read the subsequent volumes.

The thing reads like a brilliant set of storyboards for a smash movie. The art (sometimes reminding me of Gene Colan's old stuff) is evocative of mist and rot... that's a *good* thing here. The plot recalls Tim Powers' classic novel "On Stranger Tides," mixing pirates with the undead. Horror-fantasy doesn't get better than that, and "Sea of Red" is of the same calibre.

Well worth seeking out!

Hi

I am Kieron Dwyer, one part of the SEA OF RED team, so this isn't really a review. I actually wanted to respond to "Bob's" review, which is inaccurate (although I'm glad that he at least LIKES the book).

SEA OF RED isn't a 6 issues series, it is an ongoing series, and all the trade collections will collect 4 issue arcs (5-8, 9-12, et al). While he might have made this error based on the fact that there are currently only 6 issues of the series in print, it is NOT a limited series, and all published issues will eventually be released in collected form.

I'd also like to take issue with his calling us "cheap bastards:" in fact, this book is priced at 8.95 cover price (probably cheaper through Amazon) for four issues, which were originally 2.99 each. So instead of charging the 12 dollars (or more) that a collection COULD HAVE cost, we offfered it at a substantial discount (which cuts directly into our profits). We did this to help encourage people who were unable to obtain the SOLD OUT first few issues of this series get onboard at a reasobale price. We are anything but "cheap."

you know that he's passionate about what he's done and that he's willing to stand by it. The creators aren't "cheap" at all. Great art, unique story, and an all around satisfying read.

HAY QUE TENER CUIDADO CON NUESTROS HIJOS DE LAS TRAMPAS Y LOS MÈTODOS INFAMES QUE EMPLEAN LAS SECTAS PARA ATRAPAR .....

DE LAS TRAMPAS Y LOS MÈTODOS INFAMES QUE EMPLEAN LAS SECTAS PARA ATRAPAR A NUESTROS HIJOS!

...Y de còmo impedirlo !

Cùrate en salud, amiga:Nadie està exento de esta amenaza...

ES UNA AMENAZA REAL Y MAS CERCANA DE LO QUE NOS IMAGINAMOS...
Las SECTAS RONDAN A NUESTROS HIJOS...SON MANO DE OBRA REGALADA,
FÁCILES DE CONVENCER EN LA EDAD DE LA REBELDIA CONTRA LOS PADRES...

Y los síntomas pasan desapercibidos hasta que YA NO ES TIEMPO...
Este libro TE CONDUCE A DETECTAR EL INSTANTE EN QUE SE FIJAN EN ELLOS.PROCURAN LLEVARSE A LOS MAS JÓVENES Y BIEN PARECIDOS..¡SON UN ACIERTO PARA LA SECTA !
Prevente a tiempo, amigo...No llores después como ya la sucedio a mi hermano que vive en Arizona !

those who have a teenager near to their hearts...
THE SECTS ARE ALL AROUND...NEARER THAN WHAT WE BELIEVE , stalking our young...
KNOWING THE FIRST SYMPTOMS IN OUR YOUNGSTERS IS THE ONLY WAY TO PROTECT OUR CHILDREN..
Don't hesitate!

and I will never speak about what I went thru in those six years!!!
I had to leave the Country, because they chased me everywhere and threatened me and my family with the most awful things !

PLease, IF YOU HAVE TEENAGERS...READ THIS BOOK NOW !!!!

The life and work of Federico Garcia Lorca tower over me - his delicate balance of exhaltation and alienation, of romanticism and cynicism, of life and death. Through the eyes of his poems, the gray skys and cold winds all around me blaze with a new vision. If I can ever do a tenth of what Lorca has done, as a writer, as a thinker, as a person trying to enjoy life, than I shall be more than satisfied.

There is a pocket in my old Swiss Backpack that perfectly fits only one book for when I am away from home. This is the book that goes in it: You could take a whole case of Lorca's works but you would always be missing something. Instead, most of my favorate poems are in here, bilingual so there is no need for anyone to complain about the translator.

The best way to experience any poet's work is through the ark of their life, over the vast ups and downs that go with any carrer. In this book, you can begin to feel that in Lorca's transitions and transformations of the mundane world into the extraordinary.

Brilliant, emotions of positive and negative are tasted in this work

Whether you have children or not Buy this book. If you have children read them the landscape poetry in here. They will sing them in their sleep. It will take them on magical journeys to happy places and you also.

This volume has much to recommend it: the selections are just what you'd hope for [a nice cross-sampling of Lorca's forms, styles, voices, and developmental periods]; the introductory essay by editor Christopher Maurer is excellent, concise, and illuminating; and the translations are mostly brilliant. This is almost 5-star material.

I downgraded to 4 stars becasue several translations are too prosaic and literal for this most lyrical and oblique of poets. For example, Greg Simon and Steven White's translation of Danza de la muerte reads almost as flatly as a word-for-word transcription. The tripping rhythms and apocalyptic language of the original poem feel a bit bloodless in translation. Several of Cola Franzen's translations I think adhere too faithfully to the original structure, which doesn't work with English iambs, at least not without sacrificing music.

Of course, one cannot simply criticize a translation. At issue is an insoluble debate between faithfulness to the original in structure, diction, and sense, versus faithfulness to the original in sound, rhythm, and other musical aspects. The two faithfulnesses may be at conflict.

Anyway, this is an excellent selection, flawless except for those disappointingly flat-footed renderings. Can I propose a side-by-side-by-side format? Instead of Spanish next to a single English translation, how about Spanish next to a word-by-word, highly faithful translation, next to a more musical rendering? Sort of like this: Lorca-Simon/White-Ezra Pound? [As in his "translations" of Chinese poems?] Like I said: insoluble.

I just started browsing through a book of his poems in spanish one day and loved them, but my spanish is marginal. This has the spanish poems side by side with english translations, many of which I don't really like because they do things like switch words and lines and take a little too much freedom and change the spirit of the poem, but that's okay. You can read the spanish, read the english, and see exactly what has been changed, but the beauty is in the spanish ones, and though his vocabulary is large, yours doesn't really have to be to appreciate the sound and sight of these poems in spanish. I love many of the sonnets, plus the king of harlem, which reminds me of HCE from Finnegans Wake, this character that becomes the landscape itself, "after walking", and many others from the poet in new york. I've just been getting into some spanish poets after reading some st john of the cross and seeing what types of flows and life can be infused into words in this language, and these dark, bloody grimy oozes of language have had me high for weeks.

Anytime you have Burroughs, Ballard, Metzger, and R. A. Wilson together in a collection you know it's just the kind of good, clean fun you mother warned you about. (Not to mention the Rev. Stang!)
There are some great short stories in this collection. There are also a few which aren't great, but if you fancy yourself as more-subversive-than-thou, you simply aren't if you don't have a copy of this.
I've had this book for more than a decade, and it is still read often, and displayed proudly in my most prominent bookshelf.

What happens when you take the likes of Burroughs, Gibson, Hakim Bey, Robert Anton Wilson and other speculative fiction greats, and invite them to submit their most shocking, break-your-mental-state stories? You get Semiotext(S) SF, a book that invites you to get high with Bigfoot on the side of a lonley highway; a book that let's you watch, in step-by-step medical detail, Jane Fonda's boob job; a book that includes a neat-o flip-book animation of a mechanical male organ interfacing with it's mechanical female counterpart. This collection of stories will make you laugh out loud as well as lead you down the dark allies and blind corners of your psyche where you'll roll your windows up and lock your doors....

I bought this book a few years after it's release in 1989 and it helped to propel my interest in SF from being a pulp escapist distraction (i.e. Star Trek, et al) to seeing SF as a viable and vibrant literary form all it's own, capable of engaging complex social, political and philisophical quandries, both in the context of the present and the future. Tons of great short stories in this book, many of which stick with me to this day. This opened the door to such fabulous items as the Illuninatus! Trilogy, Neuormancer, and Snow Crash to name a few. And if you like the short story SF angle, I highly recommend the Mirrorshades collection edited by Bruce Sterling and Deathbird Stories by Ellison.

This is a great collection of some really out-there short stories. They're SF for the not-so-faint of heart.

And no, the material presented in this anthology is not for the faint of heart. While some of the pieces may not fit the Science Fiction stereotype >aliens, outer space, etc.< all of them test new waters, explore deeper into the recesses of the human mind, and present the varying truths found in unique, raw, and above all, fun (at least imho) formats. Don't misunderstand - it serves up its share of sex and blood and good times. The real depth starts the day, years after you've read it - when something everyday strikes a chord of familiarity, and you recall this or that story, and how weird it was to your senses. Then it has affected your frame of reference. The adjustment is highly recommended. ;-)

I do hope I did justice to your wonderful, brilliant work - it truly deserves it...

'Sensitive by Nature' takes the reader on an enthralling, informative exploration, presenting a critique of intelligence in a highly engrossing and diverting manner. Eloquently formulated, the text offers an intelligible elucidation of an otherwise abstruce subject matter. Through the scrutinization of the mechanisms of the mind, the author unlocks the secrets of life from an evolutionary standpoint, while creatively infusing the text with humor. Moreover, the manuscript is ingeniously written in a progressive manner, permitting the reader gradual access to the subject matter and culminating with the discussion of the future of intelligence. James Luisi's brilliantly executed book proffers an extremely enjoyable, thought-provoking explication of a very interesting and controversial topic, and invites the reader to reconsider previously held convictions. 'Sensitive by Nature' is a fun, exciting adventure which both satisfies and enlightens, and those willing to embark on the journey will emerge richer and fuller.

Just as science fiction stories about space travel became reality when man traveled to the moon, the great robotic works take a step toward reality in Jim Luisi's Sensitive by Nature. A humorous pair of neuron characters guide you through the evolution of the human brain to uncover the fundamental constructs needed to support artificial intelligence. But what is really needed to achieve "thinking"? A self-aware robot subject is used to illustrate the most important components of cognitive science, providing new insight into human interactions. To tantalize those that have dreamed of tinkering with robots, the book describes a conceptual model for achieving intelligent processes through automation, minus the techie jargon.

A very enjoyable and entertaining approach to presenting what some might consider a very dry and technical subject. A must read for AI and robot funatics.

As a person interested in expanding my horizons and one who enjoys reading not only what educates but also what fascinates, I found this book to be real mental tickler. It makes one stop to think after many of its passages to ponder some of the subjects to which only cursory thought had been applied previously. Choose for yourself to agree or disagree with some of the theories and concepts analyzed in the book, but take the time to read this one!

"Sensitive By Nature"

After seeing James V. Luisi's book and hearing about it the time seemed right to purchase a signed copy or two and embark on a leisurely book adventure.

What this book has done is to put into words so eloquently what I have experienced in my life.

James V. Luisi has nailed the basic principal of the challenges AI imposed both morally and empirically. I can see this book being brought into the use of Universities, think tanks as well as individuals wanting to digest a cohesive start to finish understanding of the very world that we live in and the people who have and are manipulating it.
The intellectual level that one must posses to fully comprehend and truly utilize this book is staggering. If the individual possesses the basic knowledge needed to comprehend the book they will enjoy a masterful work. If however they are deficient and read chapter by chapter and take the time to reason and comprehend each chapter then they will have read "SBN" the way it should be read.
One chapter at a time is how the reader learns and like a puzzle starts putting the parts together each at their own pace. The object I believe is to comprehend in total all the esoteric as well as the obvious statements and facts and that's where the love of knowledge comes in. If someone loves honest knowledge and the subject of life not just AI then he or she will have found a winner in "Sensitive by Nature" as I did.

John D. Zuccarino

James Luisi has written the most definitive text ever of the future of technology, psychology, education, and intelligence. This well, researched, intensely focused book will take you places no book ever has. The truth about science and technology and where we are headed, or could be headed, should be a matter of concern to everyone. Luisi will take you to places your mind never imagined it could go, and then some.

This is not just a read; it is a journey. A journey that explores time, space, information, science, education, morals, values, and religion in ways you won't comprehend until you take this ride.

You'll know you've arrived when you finish this book for the fifth time and still can't get enough.

If you think we've reached our potential as humans and the way we explore possibilities, you may be right. If you think technology can't out-think us, well, you may be wrong.

Enjoy the ride!