Reviews Books

Franz Kafka wrote "A book ought to be an ice pick to break up the frozen sea within us." Indeed, Hurka's journey to honor his father, learn of his father's heroism and suffering, and to learn about himself, was a journey into the interior chambers of the human heart that possesses vulnerability and passion. It is a book that is capable of thawing the frozen parts of us. I learned about the valor and pride of the people of the Czech Republic during the Communist reign, as well as the story of one man's heroism. The author wrote so beautifully, I am enticed to someday visit this part of the world.

Joseph Hurka has written a very touching memoir of his father's valiant fight against fascism in his home country. This rings especially poignant in the troubled times now facing America. I purchased this book the Saturday before the vile terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. I began reading it, thinking it was a wonderful memoir of a bygone era. Now, post-attacks, upon my finishing this book I have a renewed sense of just how precious freedom is and what so many other people have been willing to do to secure it. Bravo to Hurka Senior, for all the proud fighting he did to do his part to keep the hope of freedom alive; we owe him and all those like him a great debt of honor. And also bravo to his son, this book's author, for writing such a powerful story of real heroism so well and so vividly. Truly, a joy to read, and in times such as these a must-read. I highly recommend this book.

Mr. Hurka tells the story of his father, a hero, with the rhythm of a poet. Unlike many sons who have written about their fathers, this isn't about that author. Mr. Hurka allows his father's amazing life to shine through his own talent as a writer and lets the reader get to know a true patriot hero. With his lyrical tones, the reader can only hope they will be allowed to know more of Mr. Hurka himself in a future book.

I spent some time this summer reading Eagleton, beginning with After Theory. This was a long time after his Literary Theory: An Introduction, which was a must-read back when I was in college. Yet, other than this one must-read, I really didn't read any of his books, which, I was surprised to find out, now total over 30 titles. Solely on the basis of Literary Theory, Eagleton didn't seem a particularly witty writer to me, so I was delighted and intrigued by his way of making light of heavy topics with humor. With this discovery on hand, if you go back to his early books, heavy-handed seriousness toward a subject was indeed rarely his way from the beginning. There are many passages in Literary Theory (or Against the Grain, and other early titles) where his deeply ironical stance toward the topics obviously of great importance to him, or at times surprisingly savage wit, makes you laugh.

Quite a few reviews in this book have hilarious one-liners or otherwise laughter-provoking comments. One of my favorite is one written for Harold Bloom and his How to Read and Why. Bloom is a "figure of dissent" in his way, who, according to Eagleton, was "once an interesting critic" when he came up with a theory of literature as an oedipal drama, and then much later, after his "critical wheel has come full circle," began distancing himself from the US academia by "preaching the unversal humanity in a New York accent." Eagleton's concluding comment, that "if there is Bloom the self-therapist, there is also Bloom the American TV evangelist, full of windy moralistic rhetoric about how to 'aprehend and recognize the possibility of the good, help it to endure, give it space in your life'," is so very correct.

Laughter aside, the book contains a lot to learn from. To me, this can be a field manual to book reviewers, and those who want to be good readers. In some reviews, for example the one done on Rolf Wiggershaus' The Frankfurt School, Eagleton seems to spend almost the whole of the space in discussing what *he* thinks and knows about the subject the reviewed book deals with, giving the book in question a space of just a paragraph or two toward the very end. In the end, such an approach is always a well-taken one, since it gives the book a more precise location in not only the cultural/intellectual climate where it appeared but also the personal context where it's read and appreciated.

Terry Eagleton is best known as an, albeit unorthodox, Marxist writer on literary theory, so one could well expect a collection of some of his best literary reviews to be chock-full of impenetrable jargon. But looks can be deceiving: this collection, titled "Figures of Dissent", is in fact quite entertaining, even for those who have no particular training or interest in high-minded lit-crit. The title is somewhat odd, as the subjects under review have nothing in particular in common (except their works being published in English at some point), least of all some sort of status as 'dissenter'. The authors involved are on the other hand all interesting and varied, and this makes the book in fact rather a page-turner.

Most appealing about the reviews is Eagleton's unsurpassed mastery of both style and content. He pairs erudite literary insight with a sharp wit and a strongly developed sense of irony, which makes his reviews both informative as statements on literature and highly effective as polemics. Moreover, in contrast to many collections of such essays by famous theorists, the vast majority of the reviews involved can be considered to be overall 'positive', and Eagleton deftly avoids the grumpy predictability of the entrenched newspaper critic.

Admittedly, one could complain that the collection is rather unduly focused on British literature, and there are many references to literature theorists as well as writers who are not likely to ring a bell with anyone outside the Isles, but this is easily forgiven as Eagleton is the best guide to the subject one might wish for. It does help to have a particular interest in Anglo-Irish literature, as this is Eagleton's specialty and a recurring theme in the book, and perhaps choosing this as the subject of the first two or three reviews in the book was not well-chosen. But the reader discovers soon enough that Eagleton has something intelligent to say about pretty much any subject from Dario Fo to Bill Gates, and his short-and-to-the-point criticisms of ideology hit home like so many arrows of Artemis (one will find the book very quotable). The high point of this collection as well as his artful irony is when Eagleton reviews David Beckham's autobiography, which is mercilessly dissected in a very comical dry style without ever becoming condescending to its subject.

Much recommended to anyone who enjoys English language literature.

Terry Eagleton is perhaps the best-known academic literary critic writing in English today. Author of nearly 30 books on topics ranging from critical theory to Wittgenstein, Eagleton remains the political conscience of modern criticism and (with Fredric Jameson) the foremost Marxist theorist of our time. His deep literary and philosophical erudition and commitment to a more humane approach to looking critically at our culture have made him an important voice in academia since the mid-1960s.

In "Figures of Dissent," Eagleton turns his penetrating gaze to topics ranging from Lukacs to David Beckham, and his wit, learning, and elegant prose make this his most accessible and diverse collection of essays yet. Unlike such earlier essay collections as "Against the Grain," this book contains many of Eagleton's mainstream writings. While it includes reviews of critical theorists like Gayatri Spivak, Paul de Man, and Stuart Hall, there are also examinations of popular history, fiction, and the culture of late capitalism. Those with little interest in the abstract world of literary theory (Eagleton's academic specialty and principal interest) will find essays on other topics to entice them.

Overall, this is a fine collection from Eagleton, who remains an indispensable and passionate voice for Leftist thought in our tumultuous times.

You may think that Bobby D is the man, and you'd be right. But do you really understand WHY he is the man? Douglas Brode does, and in this project, he lays out all of the reasons De Niro has become one of the most prolific actors of his time. Informative and entertaining, The Films of Robert De Niro is a must read for fans of the actor and his movies.

This series of books is always outstanding for the bunch of pictures it contents. But the text equals the image, there's a lot of research for each movie De Niro's done -critic-guru Pauline Kael's comments among others-, and a few insights on the flaws of some of his movies, that may give you the right impression that this author knows some things about craftsmanship.

Robert De Niro is without a doubt one of the best actors of all time. This wonderful in-depth book covers his film career, from his early student films of the 60's with Brian De Palma through 1998's "Ronin". It briefly mentions his roles after "Ronin" and ends with "Meet the Parents" and "Men of Honor". As this fourth edition was published in 2001, an updated fifth edition is badly needed. But, even the most hardcore De Niro fans like me must admit that he hasn't had many memorable roles since "Ronin", although "Analyze This" was very funny.

When looking through this book I'm surprised at how many De Niro films haven't been released yet on dvd. With each of his movies, the author lists the cast, gives a plot summary, and tells how the critics and public reacted to each movie upon its initial release. There are hundreds of great photos from his movies (including a nice color section in the middle of the book) that fans will appreciate. I was already a major Robert De Niro fan before I bought this awesome book, but reading it helped me discover many more of his great movies. This book is an absolute must for any De Niro fan!

I can't say enough good things about this book! I had read The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health and was impressed enough to rethink my eating. But I wondered how it would ever work.

Well, I bought this cookbook two weeks ago, and every meal has received either four or five stars from my kids! I never thought they would actually eat and ENJOY tofu, but they loved the Chili-Mac, Spinach Lasagna, and Stir-Fry recipes in this book. I have also made the potato salad, apple crisp, and peanut butter crispy squares. Yum! I like the make-ahead mixes and freezer ideas. That fits with my cooking style, and I thought I couldn't do it with vegetarian cooking. Yay! Thanks, Heather, for a great book!

The first thing you need to know about Heather Houck Reseck, the author of this book, is that she's a member of the Seventh Day Adventist church. Not that it matters what religion your cookbook author is, but I didn't know this when I started reading this guidebook and I was distracted by her talk about the Sabbath and going to church until I realized what church she was talking about.

She's also a registered dietician and health consultant dedicated to helping hurried families eat healthy meals. Her book is big on shortcuts, from mixes to slow cooking, marathon cooking sessions to buying in bulk.

The book includes more than 100 pages on meal planning, nutrition and quick cooking methods, while the rest of the book features recipes for mixes, breads, dishes with fruit, entrees, side dishes, bean dishes, salads and food gifts.

All of the recipes include many variations so you can get a lot of mileage out of this book just by trying the same recipe in a different way. For instance, the recipe for bean enchiladas is a delicious but pretty standard bean, cheese and sauce situation that initially calls for refried beans, but includes variations that add brown rice, meatless burger, green chilies, sautéed vegetables and extra spice or exchanging the refried beans for black beans (which is the way I tried it, and I would definitely do it again).

Many of the recipes also include variations on how to cook the meal, from using the microwave, oven or stovetop to plugging in the slow cooker. There are tons of hints, tips and techniques for cooking quick, healthy meals that your family will love. If you want to know how to use a slow cooker or a pressure cooker, freeze meals for your family or get in and out of the supermarket faster, you'll find something of use in this book.

This book provides a very solid education in planning and eating vegetarian meals. Reseck is a little obsessed with clever plays on words and acronyms, but mostly these puns just serve to highlight her enthusiasm in her topic.

Reseck says there are eight traits of great cooks: they plan proactively, prepare nutritious food, produce delicious food, preserve simplicity, prize beauty, pursue timesaving strategies, practice ingenuity and persevere at learning. With the help of this book, you will build up a bunch of these traits, becoming a better good and giving your family more nutritious food in a flash. --Sarah E. White

I have come across a real treasure of a cookbook this time. This is a vegetarian cookbook that not only vegetarians will love but omnivores will love it too. It is one of the few vegetarian books that doesn't try to convince the reader that vegetarianism is the only way to eat and live your life. This cookbook shows one how make-ahead cooking makes sense and how you can cook once a week for a week or month of meals. You can then stock your freezer and take out each day's meal and heat it up for quick, easy, stress-free weeknight meals. Heather has shared guidelines for multiplying recipes. Another chapter is devoted to setting up the kitchen, tracking the inventory, stocking your refrigerator, freezer and cabinets and bulk foods. She has a very interesting chapter on mixes. She starts with the advantages of them to the magic of mixes - which includes the efficiency to the timeliness of them. She gives tips for preparing mixes and guidelines for converting recipes. Other chapters include slow cookers. The fix-it-fast chapter includes a brief discussion of pressure cooking as one of the time-saving techniques. I think every chapter has many charts, tips, real life situations, conversion guides etc. The chapter I really enjoy is the slow cooker chapter. There are 15 tips, 11 hints for adapting a recipe to the slow cooker, a cooking time conversion chart and a slow cooker start times chart. (The last 2 charts are so incredibly helpful for me that they are book marked for quick lookup.) Other chapters are Eight Traits of Great Cooks, Sharing Delicious Dividends (hospitality), and Gifts From the Kitchen. All these chapters before you get to any recipes!!

The book is easy reading -- I got into bed and curled up under covers and enjoyed it as much or more then any book I have read. The recipes use easy to find ingredients, They are laid out in such a way that they are very easily read and followed. Each recipe has a Prep Time, Bake Time, and Yield in the area next to the list of ingredients. After the directions are completed there is the Nutritional Facts which includes Daily Values and Diabetic Exchanges. Following that are Serving Ideas and Variations. Quite a few of the recipes are made even faster by taking advantage of the previously prepared mixes that have been stored.

She has included a very conclusive Bibliography, an excellent Glossary, a Resources section, and an extremely handy U.S./ Metric Equivalence Information area with quite a few charts and finally the Index.

This book contains so much useful information, real life situations and charts that I have not seen in any other book. What a great help to people. There are so many unique items that make this book a one of a kind.

We prepared 2 of the recipes ... Breakfast Barley and Split Pea Soup. They were both very, very good!! Quick and easy, nutritional information for each recipe, and the layout of the pages is clear. There is so much about the book I enjoyed that I can't list everything here. If you buy the book I don't think that you will be disappointed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Buy This Book!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Gist of Genetics

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

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