News and Reviews Books

Mario Balzic is back as the Rocksport, PA Chief of Police. He is frustrated by having to work on a murder case with the new and hardheaded Lieutenant of the local State Police Barrack. Mario knows how the people of the town tick and is confident in people skills being the best crime solving strategy. But the new Lt. is intent on storming in and showing everyone who is in charge regardless of what that might do to derail the investigation.

Meanwhile, Mario follows up leads of his own to determine who belonged to the sawed up bones that have been discovered scattered and buried over 8 local farms. He begins with individuals that have had access to the farms in the past but when the identity of the victim is discovered there are more questions than answers.

This is the second book in the Mario Balzic series of books that is set in Rocksburg. Constantine's plot is once again extremely simplistic, almost to the point of boring. The amazing luck that Mario has wrapping up a 15 month old murder investigation in a matter of days is too good to be true. And for him to do it in a completely effortless laid back way makes the story so unbelievable as to be a disappointment. There is language and dialogue that refers to women and black people in a less than "PC" manner. That type of writing may have been acceptable in 1973 when the book was written, but as reader that is not easily offended, the references are uncomfortable at best in today's day and age. I don't go so far as to say that it is a bad book, but more that it just doesn't hold up to the test of time.

Constantine's second (if I have my facts straight) Mario Balzic mystery, _The Man Who Liked To Look At Himself_ is as good as his debut.

Like _The Rocksburg Railway Murders_, this book centers about Balzic, the chief of police in a small Pennsylvania town. Parts of a body are found on farms which are leased as hunting lands by a local hunting club.

It's not long before Balzic has figured out the identity of the victim, but pinning the murder on the killer is another matter. Again, sharp attention to detail and a good appreciation for local color make Constantine's writing so special. He really gets the small town cop character right. Or, at least, I think he does. It sure has the ring of truth.

Characters such as the defense attorney Mo Valcanas reappear in this book. They're certainly welcome; Balzic isn't the only interesting character from the first novel. I'm hoping for a reappearance of the priest character from the railway murders novel. The priest was my favorite character, aside from Mario, in the debut. I don't recall the priest having any role in this book.

The title seems unrelated to the story, until late in the novel, when it's presented by Balzic himself in a clever turn of the plot.

All in all, this is a good small-town police-chief murder mystery.

Arthur L. Finkle

Rashi's Daughters is an important work for many reasons. Rashi, himself, was a philological genius about which the novel relates his sacrifice and the family's sacrifice for his training/teaching. The novel puts a face of this medieval scholar. It also relates the hard times, the many deaths at childbirth, the superstitions and Jewish practices during the European 11th century in Jewish life.

The book gives us either gratuitous initial sexual intercourse among the very observant Jews or the genuine article. It all depends on your perspective. It seemd very unusual to be exposed to a sexual aspect of this intellectual family.

This writer was looking for the men these daughters married whose children became the Tosafot (Great commentators on Rashi, himeself). It would have been a great incite into the inter-workings of this hard-working family which produced so many scholars, both male and female.

Rashi's Daughters is an important work for many reasons. Rashi, himself, was a philological genius about which the novel relates his sacrifice and the family's sacrifice for his training/teaching. The novel puts a face of this medieval scholar. It also relates the hard times, the many deaths at childbirth, the superstitions and Jewish practices during the European 11th century in Jewish life.

The book gives us either gratuitous initial sexual intercourse among the very observant Jews or the genuine article. It all depends on your perspective. It seemd very unusual to be exposed to a sexual aspect of this intellectual family.

This writer was looking for the men these daughters married whose children became the Tosafot (Great commentators on Rashi, himeself). It would have been a great incite into the inter-workings of this hard-working family which produced so many scholars, both male and female.

This book includes a shorter piece, "The Mystery of Majorana", which is a gem. It gives an explanation for the disappearance of the enigmatic and brilliant physicist Ettore Majorana. The story may or may not be the best researched explanation for what happened to Majorana, but the perspective brought to the life of a genius scientist by the author is compelling.

I have not read, "The Moro Affair" yet, but I assume it will rate at least zero stars, which makes this a five star book.

The NYRB deserves credit for retrieving several wonderful works by the Sicilian writer-politician Leonardo Sciascia: "Day of the Owl" surely; "Equal Danger" and "To Each His Own," probably. "Italian Hours" is a lesser work, but still good fun.

By contrast, "The Moro Affair" is (or ought to be) an embarrassment, to Sciascia and to the publisher as well. At the most forgiving, we can call it a nonce work, interesting as an exemplar of the kind of bitchiness and personalism that passes for journalism in Italy. But for the ordinary reader today, if it is to succeed at all, it needs a comprehensive introduction. But Peter Robb (who has written well about Sicily elsewhere) apparently wasn't willing to put in the time or the effort.

Some will say that the likely reader already knows about the Moro episode. Probably in outline, yes, but if he knows it in the kind of detail necessary to appreciate this work, he has probably read Sciascia's account long ago--and, chances are, in Italian.

On the other hand, if you really do want a decent overview of the Moro affair, there is a good one available, ironically, through the New York Review of Books. It's a review, by Adrian Lyttelton available (albeit as paid content) in the archives at the NYRB website. If you really need to master Sciascia on Morrow, Lyttelton is probably a ticket. But unless you are a fairly serious specialist, you can probably give it a bye.

I don't see how it would be possible for a review guide to lower your SAT score but it happened. My math score remained unchanged while my verbal went down 20 pts. I was very disappointed. However, I did study the Cliff Notes ACT Review book as well and it boosted my composite by 3 points, (and math, my weakest from a 20 to a 24).

This is a good book if you are looking to prepare yourself for the SAT I, i really recomend it, because i helped me a lot to get a better score in my SAT I.

Finkelstein is nothing if not thorough in making his case against those who support Israel as a country that can do no harm/wrong, and who use the epithet of anti-Semite ( or self-hating Jew )for anyone who dares to criticize any of its actions.
He quotes from well respected human rights groups, including the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights (B'Tselem) ,Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights -Israel, and makes the case against torture in Israel. I found some of those reports too painful to read,("Israel's Abu Ghraib) having lost many of my family in the Holocaust.

Finkelstein bravely takes on those who claim that there is a growth in anti-Semitism, showing that it is mainly used " to assail Israel's critics", that the claim is in some cases clearly anti-black, and that in other cases it excuses those who support Israel, such as Falwell, Robertson and other Christian Fundamentalists, some of whom are in actuality anti-Semitic, and are using Israel as a means for their own ends .
He also takes on Alan Dershowitz' book, "The Case For Israel" and carefully takes the book apart, paragraph by paragraph.For example , Dershowitz's often-used "blame the victim" in Arab civilian deaths , citing alleged "human shields", ambulances disguised as actual terrorist engines, etc. to show the culpability of the Arabs in their civilian deaths is countered by Finkelstein in reports from human rights organizations , such as B'Tselem, and shown to be false.

No wonder Dershowitz wanted this book trashed!

I would definitely reccommnend this book, particularly for Jewish readers who care about Israel's future and worry about its policies as being counter-productive to itself and to peace in the Middle East.

This is Neve Gordon's review of Norman Finkelstein's awful book, "Beyond Chutzpah."

This book made claims that were so outrageous that Alan Dershowitz pointed out that there might be legal ramifications in publishing it as it stood. But Gordon dismisses all this as an attempt to interfere with "academic freedom!" That is dishonesty on Gordon's part.

There has indeed been a rise in anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic propaganda from the "Left," but both Finkelstein and Gordon attempt to pretend it just isn't so. And Gordon agrees with a totally preposterous comment by Finkelstein to the effect that the rhetoric of the new anti-Semitism is used as a political tool to "ward off and delegitimize all criticism of Israel." And that, on top of that, not only has Israel been immunized from legitimate criticism (Israel in fact has not been immunized from legitimate criticism nor has it been immunized from illegitimate criticism, both of which it has received in more than ample amounts), criticism of Israel's "assault" on international law has been deflected as well!

If you can believe that, you can believe anything.

Even Gordon finds a couple of things about Finkelstein's trashy book to criticize. He points out that Israel has in no way led an unprecedented assault on international law. An assault, yes, but unprecedented, no. Very funny.

More seriously, Gordon mistrusts Finkelstein's implicit claim that the Jews are to blame for anti-Semitism. Citing Sartre, Gordon explains that "no one is to blame for anti-Semitism except the anti-Semites." And he quotes Sartre in explaining that "anti-Semitism 'precedes the facts that call it forth,' so that even if Israel were the most law-abiding state on this planet, anti-Semitism would still exist." Okay, that's worth a star. And I gave this article one star.

Gordon wonders about academic honesty. He certainly should! But the person he questions is Dershowitz! And he wonders how "a prominent professor holding an endowed chair at a leading university can publish a book whose major claims are false." But the anti-Zionists are the culprits here: they've had professors with endowed chairs publish some of the most anti-intellectual trash I have ever seen. Gordon says that Finkelstein is arguing for a moral Israel. That's a joke.

My concern is not about Israel, but about truth, scholarship, and academic honesty. This article mocks all of them.

Why do we need a book of trivia about the host, designers and, I'm assuming, carpenters on a home improvement/reality/pseudo-game show? Is this really necessary?
Now, I'll be the first to admit that I've been watching Trading Spaces (and the myriad of knock-offs) for far longer than I ought to, but I wouldn't wish a handy, coffee table book of "fun facts" on my worst enemy. It's fluff, people! It's grotesque, opportunistic marketing! C'mon! As if Vern, Hildy or Frank need more publicity! They're interior designers, not N'SYNC! Does anybody really need fun facts about interior design? How "fun" can they be, anyway? I'm sorry, but "Frank used a coffee can, stipple glaze and a guitar string to create this effect in the Johnson's living room" is mildly interesting, but certainly not "fun".
I don't know if this is the same book, but I saw one (yes, that means that there are several of these books!) featuring POSTERS of your fave designers a la Teen Beat! Yep, that's what I need in my garage: A nice big poster of Ty friggin' Pennington!
Ooh, I feel a little sick.

This is fun, really fun. I got this for Christmas, and now I'm buying more copies as favors for our next Sat. nite Trading Spaces party. Our friends are obsessed with this show, and this book has lots of factoids I never knew about the show and the cast. This also is an amazing buy. If you love the Trading Spaces show, you have to buy this.

Wonderful book. Hardcover heirloom edition. Each episode gets about 1-2 pages. There are pictures of all the cast members going through the paces of doing the show (with the notable exception of former designers Dez and Roderick), a before-and-after of every room ever done by Trading Spaces, and information on the most notorious episodes. Some of the book's features are adapted from the thumbnail Episode Guides that have appeared in the back of some of the previous Trading Spaces books. There are special spreads on key swap, designer chat, and famous reveals. Crying Pam, Brown Jessie, the celebrity shows... they're all here. Great holiday gift for the Trading Spaces fan in your life!

I am a big fan of the show, but this book is really bad! 1) the before/after photos for each episode are so small, you have to practically squint to see them; 2) why does Alex (first host) keep on getting dissed throughout the book - again (same is in other TS books) - move on, get over it already!; 3) colors on several after shots are way off. One episode mentions the "sage green" walls when in fact the walls are lavender; 4) lots of useless info seems to be used to fill up the space on the page. Frankly, do we really need to know that "...Gen wore her hair in lots of braids...??" Give us bigger photos of rooms instead; 5) except for the same 2 ("I hate brown", and the lady who cries off camera) there is practially NO mention of whether homeowners liked/disliked their rooms. It would have been a great addition to each episode to remind us whether homeowners were happy or not. Also, this book has some re-tread verbiage from other Trading Spaces books. This has got to be the most disappointing book in the TS series!

Jean-Francois Manzoni is an Associate Professor of management at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. He is the co-author, along with Jean-Louis Barsoux, of 'The Set-Up-to-Fail Syndrome: How Good Managers Cause Great People to Fail' (2002). This article was published in the September 2002-issue of the Harvard Business Review.

Although it is an extremely important task, it is also an extremely difficult task: Giving feedback to your employees. And they become even harder when employee performance falls short of expectations. In most cases, it results in a win-or-lose proposition. But the author believes that these conversations do not have to be so hard. Through changing your mind-set with which you develop and deliver negative feedback, the odds of success will increase considerably. According to Manzoni the main problem is that managers have a tendency to frame threatening situations in narrow terms, leading to generalization of a subordinate's performance and the reason for the lack in performance. So what can we do to improve this framing issue? Bosses should get past these hurdles and become more conscious and careful when framing decisions. The author provides us with a useful little sidebar on making feedback more acceptable.

Yes, this article tackles an important issue but sadly enough it falls well short from achieving its goal. The examples used are clear and useful, but the authors provide far too little useful advice on how to tackle this difficult problem. Instead, I recommend visiting Daniel Goleman's article 'Primal Leadership' (2001) or Vanessa Urch Druskat's article 'Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups' (2001). The author uses simple US-English.

Girolamo Cardano's THE BOOK OF MY LIFE is a very typical entry into the lists of the New York Review of Books Classics: fairly obscure except to Renaissance historians, Cardano was an enormously important Italian mathemetician, scientist, and astrologer who also wrote an account of himself, his nature, and his life. Cardano's experiences in 16th-century Italy are extremely complex and colorful, and he recounts not only his problems with his children and his many enemies, but also his birthsign, his experiments, and his encounters with supernatural beings. The book isn't quite as enthralling as you hope it might be, and in the foreword Anthony Grafton comments on the limitations of this translation (which hearkens back to the 1920s)--given this, you wonder why NYRB didn't commission a new and more faithful translation. The book is intriguing enough but doesn't exactly pass the time quite in the enjoyable way the NYRB Classics seem to be intended to do.

i found this book to be kind of easy to read..the writing might not agree with some students but it did with me.. however i'm not saying it's totlly complete,not like lippincott pharmacology..but for some one who wants a last minute review and fast..this is the book.u might try using another review book to supplement it perhaps the made ridiculosly pahrmacolgy..if u use both these books u'll cover every thing.