Charles Williams Books

This is a popular university textbook. I know this because I called several universities for recommendations before purchasing. I've used this book as a professional reference. It is very current on recent pronouncements. The book is well organized, has good examples and it includes many "real world" examples as well

If you liked the CD, then you will love this book. It has some of the best music that I have ever played. I really enjoyed it!

The Mystery Hall of Fame is an ambitious collection of stories that represents the craft of mystery writing at its all-time best. And who could better choose such stories than the men and women who write this much-loved brand of fiction, the Mystery Writers of American, one of the most important and active writers' groups in the country? The members of MWA voted not just for the works of mystery and suspense that would make a good anthology, but for a star-studded list of authors and their most outstanding stories, for classics of the past and for the greats among the modern writers.

You will fid here "The Purloined Letter" by Edgar Allan Poe, "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Oracle of the Dog" by G. K. Chesterton, and stories by such other unforgettable writers as Lord Dunsany, Dashiell Hamett, Atgatha Christie, John Dickson Carr, Ellery Queen, and Roald Dahl, represented by his hilarious tale of the perfect crime, "Lamb to the Slaughter." Among the authors are several who deserve to be better known than they are to the general reader, such as Jacques Futrelle, Thomas Burke, Fredric Brown, and Hollywood screenwriter Philip MacDonald. The book is a testimony to the vitality of this field of fiction over many long decades.

Although out of date and superceded by a considerable number of later scholarly works, this account of Darwin and Huxley and the generation of the Origin is still interesting, and profitably read, although some of the views (e.g. the account of the Huxley/Wilberforce debate) have undergone severe revisions.

The great minds...around whom the intellectual holocaust of the 19th century revolved...are at the center of this superb study, a portrait in full of the men and the era which gave birth to the theory of evolution.

One, Charles Darwin, was the introverted genius whose Origin of Species rocked Victorian England and revolutionized scientific theory; the other, Thomas Huxley, was the brilliant scientist, essayist, and orator who with tongue and pen subdued Darwin's critics and became his public defender.

Working with vast amounts of material, published and unpublished, William Irvine has skillfully combined history and biography. He shows how dissimilar they were in character...Darwin, the shy, industrious, plodding scientist who assembled enormous masses of scientific data and spent hours dissecting a barnacle with infinite patience; and Huxley, his vigorous, eloquent advocate, who with fiery tongue lashed out at such formidable foes as Bishop Wilberforce and William Gladstone to gain acceptance for scientific and Darwinian ideas.

With urbanity and wit, Professor Irvine describes in vivid detail the lives, both public and private, of these two men. He gives full, colorful accounts of Darwin's courtship and marrage, his orchid research, the writing of the Origin, and his final recognition and honors. There is a parallel re-creation of Huxley's family and personal life, his scientific voyage aboard the Rattlesnake, his visit to the U.S., his vigorous debates before the Metaphysical Society.

A masterpiece of these two great men and the era in which they lived.

List of illustrations:

Darwin and the Beagle
Charles and Emma Darwin in 1840
Darwin and Huxley in the 1850's
Vanity Fair's Darwin and Huxley, 1871
Lyell, Wallace, Gray and Hooker
Darwin and the house at Downe
Huxley and the house at Marlborough Place
Huxley and the residence at Hodeslea
This is from 1955 edition of this book.

Charles and William Mayo were truly pioneers in the area of medicine. The Mayo Clinic is still considered one of the finest treatment hospitals in the world. This book is a collection of many of their favorite sayings. Split into two sections, the first consists of those of Charles and the second those of William.
Some of my favorites in the book are:

Page 13
"It took the world from the day of its creation to the time of the sixteenth century to raise a doubting Thomas of sufficient mental strength and courage to state that questions were answered not by authority, but by experiment."

Page 25
"The scientist is not content to stop at the obvious."

Page 31
"More good would come to our country through tongue control than through birth control."

Page 97
"The independent thinker is a crank if he thinks wrongly, but a genius if he thinks rightly."

These words of wisdom will be valid as long as one segment of the human race devotes itself to curing the ills of all segments.

Charles and William Mayo were truly pioneers in the area of medicine. The Mayo Clinic is still considered one of the finest treatment hospitals in the world. This book is a collection of many of their favorite sayings. Split into two sections, the first consists of those of Charles and the second those of William.
Some of my favorites in the book are:

Page 13
"It took the world from the day of its creation to the time of the sixteenth century to raise a doubting Thomas of sufficient mental strength and courage to state that questions were answered not by authority, but by experiment."

Page 25
"The scientist is not content to stop at the obvious."

Page 31
"More good would come to our country through tongue control than through birth control."

Page 97
"The independent thinker is a crank if he thinks wrongly, but a genius if he thinks rightly."

These words of wisdom will be valid as long as one segment of the human race devotes itself to curing the ills of all segments.

I live in North Carolina and read William Queen's first book "Under and Alone" to learn about a guy from the same area and because I have family in law enforcement. The book has been passed around the entire family at least 3 times. My brother was lucky enough to hear Mr. Queen speak at a law enforcement seminar and was thrilled to get to talk with him. After such a great experience with the first book I had to get "Armed and Dangerous" to see what else this brave man had been up to. Reading about his experience with Mark Stephens the crazy drug dealer just gave me even more respect for this man who is truly an American Hero. This book is now on it's way around the family and every one that has read it is truly impressed with this man and his story. Well worth the read.

The Art of Dying: A Jungian View of Patients' Drawings By Yvonne Barnhouse Williams

A Review By Sheldon Shalley

Yvonne Williams in her book, "The Art of Dying: A Jungian View of Patients' Drawing", demonstrates once again that "most human thought and behavior is symbolic" (Jung). Williams shows how patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) express their thoughts and feelings about living and dying with CF by drawing pictures. She takes us on a journey of their inner experience as expressed symbolically in their drawings. In that process Williams illuminates the possible meanings of those drawings. With care and great respect for both the patient's individual journey with CF and for the role that the unconscious plays in that journey, Williams opens windows of insight into the possible meanings of patients' drawings at various stages of the illness. Ms Williams uses the patients' drawings, their comments about the drawings, and her own knowledge of symbols, mythology, Jungian and archetypal psychology to amplify and reflect back to her patients what is happening at the unconscious levels of experience in order to connect them more consciously to that process. At other times, the drawings become containers that Williams uses to hold the unconscious process as it develops allowing patients to come to the needed awareness on their own. In any case, Williams demonstrates that the unconscious knows far more about a patient's living and dying process than we might want to believe. She shows that patients know on some level when a relapse is on the horizon or when a time of improved health is ahead. Such information, Williams asserts, is revealed in the images in the patients' drawings. Williams gives examples of drawings that point to specific physiological developments such as a collapsed lung, gastric ulcer exacerbation, edema, sinusitis, pulmonary congestion, and the exact location of a returned cancer all prior to medical examination. Williams also shows how drawings reveal the psychological and emotional states of patients as well as the approach of death and how much time may be left. According to Williams, patients know deep within themselves if they will recover and when life will end. They have an unconscious awareness about their conditions and its prognosis. Their drawings reveal what the inner world of the unconscious knows--the secret knowledge of the repressed, the denied, the latent as well as where life is heading. This, according to Williams, is the value of having patients draw. The pictures are windows into the soul. For one brief moment--that moment when therapist and patient embrace the drawing--they share the secrets of this inner world.

"The Art of Dying" teaches us how the drawings of seriously ill patients can serve as mediators between life, death, and rebirth. At times they speak to the daily concerns of the patients' lives and their life tasks. At other times (and sometimes, at the same time) they speak to the preparation for death. Ultimately, the drawings seem to connect the dying patient to the life after death, a rebirth into a new life, and a new beginning.

Williams' exploration of the interaction between spirit and soul and the dominance of one over the other as one's partner in death is particularly enlightening and an important contribution to our evolving understanding of life and death and of how we die. Williams argues convincingly that what we need at death--soul or spirit--is archetypally determined based on the individual needs of the dying patient. To that end, says Williams, there are no "bad" or "good" deaths. Different archetypal energies contend to establish the attitude of one's consciousness and influences how one will adjust to death. In this process, Williams seems to suggest that we serve as midwives, receiving and bringing to birth from the patient what psyche produces. For one person the need may be to die as a warrior. Thus, the spirit archetype guides the way directing one to "fight the good fight." For another, the soul archetype leads. This person seems to "dance out of life" with confidence and peace. Williams warns against judging the attitude toward living and dying revealed in drawings and against interpreting a patient's drawings by projecting our own intuitions, values, desires, fears, and objectives onto the drawings. Rather, Williams would have us honor the drawings as authentic representations of the many possibilities of the patient's inner world.

Professional and layperson alike that are involved in the care of persons with a life-threatening illness will find this book both comforting and challenging. It comforts in that is asserts that there is a process beyond our conscious self or conscious ability that is working toward our healing and our wholeness. That healing and wholeness it turns out is spiritual, a connection to a greater Self, a Self that exists beyond the limitations of physical illness and death. It challenges us in that it forces us to examine our assumptions about life and death, about fantasy (drawing) and reality, and about the role the unconscious may play in helping us adjust to an illness or in releasing us to death and rebirth. In all of this, Ms Williams gently guides us through a wealth of valuable information for understanding what psyche produces when patients draw.

Barbara Hammet has created a wonderful tribute to William Morris in this work. For those unfamiliar with William Morris, she provides a work biography of the master artist. Though short, she gives examples of his work, and explanation of his background. Once this is explained, she launches into the rest of the book, where she offers more than 40 charts that are Hammet's interpretations of Morris' style. Pillows, bell pulls, small motifs, wall hangings, broaches, bookmarks, and even a full alphabet are some of the items she offers. She even gives the design and instructions for a 3-D treasure box! There are small motifs in a few colors, or larger items in less than 4 colors which would be very well suited to the beginning stitcher and many things that are large and complex for the experienced stitcher.

Another reviewer said these are poor examples of William Morris's work. I must disagree. These items are beautiful, and they are Barbara Hammet's art she BASED on William Morris. Still, any of these finished works would be the perfect compliment to Morris's art.

Because of the wide variety of skill levels and project scales I would highly recommend this book to any level of cross stitcher. Even those needle artists not interested in Morris might find a few projects they find enjoyable in this diverse volume. Hammet does offer instructions for finishing the projects and a few basic cross stitch instructions, but I would recommend purchasing the Cross Stitcher's Bible in addition if you have NEVER cross stitched before, as you will probably need more instruction than is provided here.

Highest recommendations!