Papers Books

I'm very happy to see an extraordinary writer get some recognition, as Dybek has with his new collection "I Sailed with Magellan." I hope his new readers will pick up this book as well, which is, quite simply, the best collection of short stories I've read.
Dybek captures the magic, wonder, and fear of childhood and adolescence precisely, transporting us back to that time in our own life where we still hoped anything was possible, but had seen enough of the world to know otherwise.

This is my favorite collection of short stories by any contemporary author. Stories like "Blood Soup" contain bizarre, unforgettable characters and the author's unique, horrified yet loving view of Chicago mainly through the eyes of children. The neo-gothic setting of the "city of big shoulders" (as Carl Sandburg put it) is a perfect backdrop to stories of love, violence, and growing up.

I grew up in Chinatown LA. My parents dragged me to many Chinese operas. Even when I had no idea what they were singing, the beautiful costumes and makeup and spectacle were dazzling. This compendium is a wonderful introduction to the art form. I adore paper dolls in general, but Dover paper doll series also instructs. The art work and detail of the costumes are wonderful.

I digitize for the embroidery world. This selected Chinese Opera Costumes of Paper Dolls, was just glorious. It gives details of the clothing, and it's ok to play with paper dolls, no matter what your age.
Very Nice book, Students of costumnes will appreciate this book, and younger children will have loads of fun.

Second book in Petretti's/Beyer's comprehensive look at specific areas of Coca-Cola collecting. This book provides a great deal of history behind the calendars as well as some beautiful color pictures of nearly every calendar that Coke ever released, including some very rare pre-1900 calendars. There is a guide to storing and preserving calendars in the back, as well as the most up-to-date price guide available on the subject. Those who bought Classic Coca-Cola Trays know what to expect and others should be pleasantly surprised. Recommend this book to collectors (a must!) and to anybody that is interested in the history of advertising.

This new hardbound 176 page beauty of a library volume with colorful plastic laminated covers features 125 full color and 20 black and white very large, sharp photos of these gems. Its loaded with information including: Development of early printing and advertising, role of promotional materials in the early years of the Coca-Cola Company, Distributor Calendars, Bottler Calendars, Foreign Calendars, Home and Reference Calendars. A complete Guide For Collectors tells you what to collect, preservation and display of early calendars, protecting, restoration info, and a very complete grading guide. 1999 values are shown in 3 grades. A really beautiful and unique new reference that belongs in the collector's library.

It's a great book if you need to know what's driving todays information technology w.r.t. bandwidth and how it can revolutionize the economy.

The IEEE Information Society releases (IEEE Press) releases yet another priceless book which is both historical in nature; yet every bit as current as when Shannon first started published some of his more famous works in the 1940's. This book is unquestionably a "must have" reference book for either communication engineers or mathemeticians who have either a serious, or newly found interest in the topic of "information theory." Shannon's theorems of Channel Capacity and Channel

Coding are studied by EE students worldwide. However, this book is much-much-more. The books 924 pages contain a wide assortment of articles written by this rare genius. Elementary cryptography and analysis of the Entropy of the written language; "communications secrecy" (which is quite honestly outdated by todays standards; but taken into context, the papers were valuable at the time.) Also obscure articles on "game theory" as it applies to the field of "artificial

intelligence" which at the time, he was a pioneer (along with other great minds including Turing, Minsky, etc..) Also, his articles on early computers and automata, and optimizing circuits so as to use less relays, etc.. are also quite interesting... Yes, the man was mortal, and to show that he wasn't all mathemetician, Shannon writes a fascinating article on the physics of JUGGLING.. The book comes with an introductory chapter which contains a somewhat adequate biography, and an interview with OMNI Magazine which was published in 1987.

This is definately a book which should be on the shelf of anyone serious about the subject. Yes, there are much more technical books on the subject. If you have a PhD in EE or mathematics, you might not be impressed... but Shannon's "easy writing style" which differs from some of the "dry" IEEE writings of today makes for an interesting read; if only for remembering history. -S.A. Hoffman, NY-

"Cleopatra" was the most expensive film of all time to produce, (allowing for inflation). For Joseph L. Mankiewicz and his studio, it also turned into a huge, out-of-control nightmare. Still, it's one of the great epic films to ever grace the silver screen.

But here, we have the correspondence between the two top marketing guys for Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation while the film was being made. By day, they sent telegrams back and forth to carry out the business of the studio -- but their private home correspondence (almost daily between Italy and the United States) tells the REAL story of the happenings both on and off the movie set.

Of course the film went insanely over budget, only to be saved by "The Cabinet of Caligari" and "The Longest Day," both of which made lots of cash and carried the day for Fox. But, speaking of insanity, this book describes in detail the "interactions" between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton who met for the first time during the filming of Cleopatra. Of course, Liz was married to Eddie Fisher at the time but this was no barrier whatever to her notable libido for Burton.

It's been a long time since I've enjoyed a gossip book as much as I did this one. Along with the humor, there is a ton of good trivia about the making of this superb film.

Highly recommended!

I first discovered this book while watching a documentary on 20th Century Fox's "Cleopatra" (1963), starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and Rex Harrison. Being a huge fan of the film, I decided to track down a copy and check it out. What a great read! Now, it's not a novel or even a typical "story" type book (if that makes sense), but rather it's the personal correspondence (letters, phone calls, and wires) between two of the film's publicists, Jack Brodsky and Nathan Weiss, spanning the film's entire lengthy and expensive production from start to finish. It was fascinating to read these insiders' perspectives on the filmmaking process, all the turmoil that surrounded it, and the scandalous affair between Taylor and Burton. So if you really enjoyed the film and want to know more about what went into making it, I highly recommend this book!

I have read this book many times over the years, first when I was 12 years old hearing about my famous cousin who was a prisoner of war, then again at about 16. As I read this book I was in complete awe that one man could with stand so many years of such hardship, things were done to this man that most of us have only seen in the movies. He lost his family, but gained it back with a new wife and life. If you read this book only for the history then you are missing half the story this is a story meant to inspire something special in a person. If you take nothing from this book I ask that you take this mans legacy with you when you close the book, after all how much did it take from hisself to find the bravery to sit down and relive those terrible years in his mind over and over again.

I had the pleasure of working with Ernie in a privately owned company a few years ago. I was amazed when I found out exactly what he went through for so many years. When his son loaned me a copy of his book I could not put it down.

This book is a page turner, every event in Ernie's life takes many turns. You are always asking yourself how much can this man take? Why doesn't he just give up? After reading this book you can see that a man of his character would never consider that an option. This story is a harrowing account of a civilian pilot taken prisoner and held for many years. Held in various locations he finally ends up at the famous "Hanoi Hilton". Ernie is a wonderful man and I appreciate his sharing his story. Try your library if you can't find it here.

The best of Rawls in a fine edition. Great book to read.

Rawls' doctoral dissertation, completed at Harvard in 1951, sketched a procedure for adjudicating certain political and moral conflicts. Twenty years later he parlayed this procedure into his famous elaboration of social contract theory, his conception of "justice as fairness." This idea marks the heart of Rawls' _A Theory of Justice_, the most important and influential work of political philosophy of the twentieth century. His central thesis, that a conception of justice as fairness would be accepted by all members of liberal constitutional democracies, motivated Rawls' justly-celebrated philosophical defense of democratic liberalism. In _Political Liberalism_ (1993), Rawls deepened his philosophical analysis by articulating an even broader principle, that of "public reason," which he believes is the shared basis for justifying (among other things) liberty of conscience, freedom of thought, and toleration of difference within liberal societies. Most recently, in _The Law of Peoples_ (1999), Rawls has stretched the social contract yet further by defending an even more general philosophical principle, that of the "just law of peoples." Just as the liberal principles of justice of fairness and public reason allowed him to develop complex theories about political relations within liberal democracies, Rawls believes that, because it would be acceptable to both constitutional liberals and members of certain illiberal societies, this new principle forms the basis of a social contract more inclusive than those of his earlier treatises. Rawls' vision of a realizable near-utopia emerges through his beautiful theoretical elaborations of a social contract theory that takes his principles--as well as the existence of a world burdened with outlaw states, crushing poverty, and problematical absolutism--utterly seriously.

Rawls' _Collected Papers_ brings together nearly all of his major and minor shorter publications on these and related issues. Many essays explore in greater depth issues raised by critics of _A Theory of Justice_ and _Political Liberalism_, and all of them together paint a fascinating portrait of Rawls' philosophical development between 1951 and the present.

If without this translation version, I guess I'll be spending much more time in doing my own translation than trying to grasp the ideas in the papers. I really appreciate the translations.

Readers-

One might question why you might purchase a book such as this. Well the answer is quite simple. Logic. Now when I say logic I don't mean the logic of the words themselves rather the logic that you might read such an impressive work.

Einstien was a genius in his time, a genius yet to be surpassed (in the authority of Science that is). His works are timeless, classic examples of the scientific process and this particular is a well-balanced example.

Written during the years of the 1910s this volume's works depict a dedication to science even through the war in Europe.

A Must Read!

Justin Smith

I am very impressed with this book, it allows us a view into Russell's thinking and personal research notes as he struggled with his theories of knowledge and logical atomism.

What is most interesting is to see his thought process 'behind the scenes' of some of his greatest ideas.

It is also good to have his famous essay 'On Denoting' finally available in book form.

For all lovers of this subject and fans of this man's thinking, this book is indispensible.

World War One was an epoch-making event which transformed the philosophy of Bertrand Russell from based mainly on logic, mathematics and epistemology to haumanitarian issues such as pacificism, freedom and the role of the state. "Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell: Pacifism and Revolution, 1916-18" provides glimpses into this transition and elucidates Russell's main arguments for pacifism and socialism: "No good to the community, of any sort or kind, results from the private ownership of land. If men were reasonable they would decree that it should cease tomorrow..." As private property is protected by the State, and the fraud and plunder that constitute property are sanctioned by legislation and enforced by weapons and war, Russell argued that the State is therefor a great evil and its functions must be taken over by community-based cooperatives and worker's syndicates. Fascinating, provocative and necessary reading.

Dr. Searles is brilliant in laying out thenceforth unrecognized patterns of intrapsychic and interpersonal dynamics experienced in working with the chronically schizophrenic population. When our present maelstrom of a love affair of tinkering with "biomedics" remedies itself--to a more ameliorative level--I think we might, perhaps, want to dash on off, purchase a copy of this book, and whatever you read, and re-read, will be of great benefit to you. His use of case illustrations blends with his presentation of theoretical views.

There are certain books every student of clinical psychology should read. This is one of them. This is Searles at his best--a classic. Not only does this book take you through the psychological maze of schizophrenia, it also guides you through the interpersonal dynamics of being a clinician working with seriously disturbed populations.