Adams Books

I really liked this book. Unlike books that talk only about financial privacy and tax havens, the author goes into issues of lifestyle privacy, health record privacy, insurance information, and mentions specific top quality banks and insurance firms that provide services offshore (with their contact information).

Perhaps most meaningful of all is that the author actually lives offshore, but is retired. So he writes about what he knows and practices, while so many so-called offshore books are written by American service providers who have something to sell you but don't actually live the lifestyle. This author has nothing to sell you, but lives the offshore life. He has been writing about these subjects for some 25 years -- I've read his 1970s books -- and most other books can't come close.

Consider, for example, a tiny nation, nestled in the mountains between France and Spain, with no army, no poverty, and no income taxes. Here, in what has been called "the shopping amll of Europe," you can enjoy a high-quality of life for much less than you'd pay in America. (Property taxes, for instance, are a maximum of $240 a year.) There's virtually no unemployment. And the crime rate is the lowest in Europe.

Or, there's America's largest trading partner, which UN economists have judged the best nation in the world in which to live and work. A land of wide-open spaces, low crime, a clean environment, comprehensive shopping, affordable housing, and excellent government services. (You can travel there without a visa, or even a passport.) And best of all, Americans who follow Starchild's recommended procedures can escape taxes altogether.

Or perhaps you'd prefer a small European enclave on the shore of a beautiful lake, with uncontrolled access to Switzerland and Liechtenstein (two great asset havens). As a resident, you pay no income tax or local tax. Municipal services are paid for by profits from the local casino. The region boasts lakes and winter sports, and is only an hour away from the cultural activities of Milan, Italy.

If you're a retired investor, author, musician, or inventor, you may qualify to reside in a unique Mediterranean island nation that's also a popular tourist destination. Your income from foreign investments or royalties is taxed at a low rate of only 5%.

There are also many beautiful sun-drenched Caribbean isalnds you could make your home.

Or, if you have a yearning to live at sea, Starchild tells you about using a yacht as your personal residential haven.

All these places are available to you. And many more besides. And you can find them all featured in Passport to International Living.

Owning property or a business outside the U.S. could become a private alternative to storing wealth in a foreign bank or securities account that has to be reported to the IRS. New regulations effective on January 1, 2001 require foreign banks to report U.S. securities owned by American clients.

Many US citizens now are seeking the American dream outside the USA. These people want what other Americans want: safe streets, good schools, friendly neighbors, rewarding work. The difference is that they are finding them in Canada, New Zealand, Mexico, Israel, Taiwan, and a growing list of other countries that are attracting record numbers of immigrants from the United States.

The United States has long been a promised land of opportunity, attracting more than 900,000 immigrants last year from all corners of the globe.

The flow of people is now no longer exclusively inward. An increasing number of Americans are looking abroad for the chance to live the kind of life they do not believe is possible in the US. Experts estimate that roughly 250,000 to 300,000 Americans move overseas each year. Of these, most are former immigrants returning to their native countries, but as many as 100,000 are native-born. Why are they leaving? The globalization of the world's economy and the breakdown of national barriers have facilitated a freer flow of goods, ideas, and people. Analysts view it as a major emerging trend of the 21st century.

Worldwide travel is faster, easier, and cheaper than at any time in human history. Telecommunications are rapidly improving, with advances in satellite technology and the growth of the Internet. Financial networks crisscross the globe. International opportunities for businesses and other endeavors are limited only by the scope of one's imagination. One sociologist who has studied Americans who leave the US has noted that the land of opportunity has now lost its borders.

Who is leaving? Students, employees, recent college graduates, businessmen, retirees, teachers, and entrepreneurs. Their ranks include most social categories, but the majority tend to be college-educated professionals. Why are they leaving? Some are looking for a slower, more peaceful pace of life. Others are seeking economic opportunities, fame, or adventure and believe it will be easier to obtain overseas. Some just want to get away. A small number of wealthy Americans leave to obtain a tax advantage. Others decide to move on because of what they view as the declining quality of life in the US. People applying to foreign embassies cite fear of crime, racial tensions, and the lack of morality in the US as reasons for their desire to leave the country. But the most important thing that all Americans would like to have is control and many people in the US feel they have lost control of their lives according to one expert who has studied the phenomenon of US citizens going abroad.

Currently, 3.2 million Americans are living abroad, up by more than 1 million in the 1990s alone, US State Department estimates show. The most popular destinations are also the closest. There are an estimated 627,000 Americans living in Canada and 550,000 Americans in Mexico. American emigration is not just confined to the Western Hemisphere. Countries ranging from Britain to Israel to Japan all boast large and growing numbers of Americans as year-round residents. The few exceptions to the trend include countries such as Iran and Libya, which are places where Americans feel less than welcome.

Aside from annual estimates by State Department personnel stationed around the world, there is no systematic US government effort to identify which and how many Americans are leaving the US. The State Department estimates are designed more to identify Americans who may need to be quickly evacuated from a country during an emergency, rather than to track the movements of US citizens. Americans are free to come and go from the US as they please and are not obligated to notify the government of their intentions.

Some observers are worried about the recent trend and warn that America may be in danger of losing its most productive and promising citizens in a US-version of the brain drain Britain experienced in the 1960s. Thirty years ago, many British scientists quit their homeland in favor of higher paying and better-equipped research jobs in the US. The same kind of economic migration of highly skilled Americans may now be under way, according to some analysts. According to one prominent university economist, it is the best and brightest, the innovators, who leave.

In the 21st century, countries will increasingly compete for the world's top talent. But many analysts argue the US has cornered the market and will continue to attract enough talented immigrants to more than compensate for any loss of American citizens. Other analysts point out that global migration will have another benefit as it will become a catalyst for international unity and peace. The kind of world we are moving toward is going to be shaped by a number of economic and political forces that will lead to a diminution of national borders and it is likely to offer more for the good than the bad.

One observer of the phenomenon of international immigration believes it will reduce hostilities and lessen the possibility of conflicts to have people of other societies enriching the society in which they move. This is the vanguard for the trend of the 21st century in the developed world.

The patience and persistence of the authors has resulted in a text that should soon be recognized as a work of a higher order than the classic "Design Patterns - Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software" by Gamma, et al. Higher order here indicates a higher position in the design process.

The two works address different areas of the pattern domain, but, by addressing business leaders and solution designers, Adam's "Patterns for e-business" will have the effect of helping drive the use of patterns at all levels of the software construction ptocess.

The pattern classifications, and the clear indication of business and IT drivers are excellent. No matter what your role, reading this work will make you a better participant in the systems design and construction process.

The authors take the time to recommend, based on your role, which chapters to read, and it which order. My suggestion -- read them all, front to back.

As someone who loves learning, I was especially drawn to the Composite patterns and discussions regarding the use of packages to provide the implementation of many parts of some patterns.

Prior to the publication of this work, I attended Mr. Adams presentation on patterns and later used the Patterns Development Kit (PDK) that supports the patterns. The session was great, I felt more of an architect/designer and builder than on any project or engagement.

The authors have made a great contribution to systems development by cataloging years of knowledge in a way that helps practitioners make sound design decisions.

Adams, Gamma, and Booch/Rumbaugh are names to remember.

I work for a company that builds and extends enterprise applications for other companies. This book has really helped get our architecture practice in order.

The best thing about this book is that it gives a methodology for designing an architecture based upon business requirements. This transition from the problem space (needs, features, requirements, etc.) to the solution space (architecture, design, tools, etc.) is glossed over or non-existant in most patterns books as they are oriented on starting at the architecture level (or lower) instead of the business requirements.

We have found this methodology very useful for reducing project risk because we are building upon proven patterns and it has proven very useful for developing quick and concise proposals that demonstrate to our clients that we listened, understood, and have a roadmap for building their solution.

Although the IBM e-business patterns website offers much more information than this book (and it's free), the book is a great asset because it steps you through the high levels of the methodology in a more approachable way.

This is a highly readable book with a much needed holistic view of e-business.

Anyone who has, or is, establishing enterprise architectural standards ought to consider this approach to layering assets i.e patterns.

The book introduces a real insight into reuse! I have read "Objects, Components and Frameworks with UML" (The Catalysis Approach) by Desmond D'Souza/Alan Wills and "Software Reuse" by Ivar Jacobson/Martin Griss/Patrik Jonsson. I struggled with both these books to abstract the basic concepts of software reuse. "Patterns for e-business" helped enormously.

If, like me, time is at a premium but you really need to understand a strategy for reuse...then read this book!

The patience and persistence of the authors has resulted in a text that should soon be recognized as a work of a higher order than the classic "Design Patterns - Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software" by Gamma, et al. Higher order here indicates a higher position in the design process.

The two works address different areas of the pattern domain, but, by addressing business leaders and solution designers, Adam's "Patterns for e-business" will have the effect of helping drive the use of patterns to all levels of the software construction process.

The pattern classifications, and the clear indication of business and IT drivers are excellent. No matter what your role, reading this work will make you a better participant in the systems design and construction process.

The authors take the time to recommend, based on your role, which chapters to read, and it which order. My suggestion -- read them all, front to back.

As someone who loves learning, I was especially drawn to the Composite patterns and discussions regarding the use of packages to provide the implementation of many parts of some patterns.

Prior to the publication of this work, I attended Mr. Adams presentation on patterns and later used the Patterns Development Kit (PDK) that supports the patterns. The session was great; I felt more of an architect/designer and builder than on any project or engagement.

The authors have made a great contribution to systems development by cataloging years of knowledge in a way that helps practitioners make sound design decisions.

Adams, Gamma, and Booch/Rumbaugh are names to remember.

This book does a great job explaining drug class pathophysiology, as well as outlining nursing considerations, and implementation. A very well rounded approach for nurses and nursing students!

This is a great book that will help you understand pharm as well as patho. I use it for both subjects

Helpful and easy to follow text. Illustrations, graphs, and charts very helpful.

This Pharmacology book is a very easy reading. Each chapter is only 5 to 7 pages long. At the end of each chapter are wonderful study questions that cover all important aspects of the chapter. There is also a great website you can go to for other study questions and NCLEX questions for nurses.

Cavier is the choice of the rich. It is merely the sturgeon's eggs. Sturgeon populations have declined 70% in the last twenty years because of the gluttony of obese, wealthy connoiseurs of fish. It is now becoming a most-endured species.

Harvard grad Richard Carey informs us of the people both profiting from the cavier producing business and shows a high-stakes cocktail of business, crime, diplomacy, technology an dthe problems of conservation. As the public appetites gorw and more people now can afford this staple to their diets which was once a luxury, it soon may become extinct.

Fish has always been my favorite food since the days of cowboys movies around Market Square and the lunch at a diner, always fish. Being a Southerner, I love to eat catfish and hush puppies. Having no way to get to the specialty fish places in East Tennessee, I have to depend on Captain D's and Long John Silver's. Usually I go to the nearest, CD, but today I rode a long bus ride to rach LJS , and it was worth it. CD may produce a larger fish sandwich, but LJS tastes better.

Sturgeon was plentiful in the waters around the Persian Empire 250 million years ago. Today it has declined drastically in the Caspian Sea where it had survived against all odds. The large salaries of 2005 enable more gluttons to afford something which sells for $100 an ounce. It corresponds with sex appeal among the high and mighty.

The sturgean has seen more years when it first spawns than many fish see in a lifetime. In East Tennessee, the carp are enormous, and people don't have the rich tasts -- though you may find it at some of the gatherings of the social groups at KMA.

This was the pap of life, the milk of wonder as the food of the gods. They spawn only in rivers of a world without sin. Soon they will all die out, becaues some people don't practice restraint in their culinary desires. And there is no place on this earth without sin, and the presumptuous who think they know it all. Even though they certainly do not!

Mr. Carey paints an interesting and informative portrait of the rich, sordid world of caviar production and of the sturgeon itself.

You don't have to be a lover of caviar to enjoy this book, but if you are it makes you more appreciative of the noble egg. I recommend the book highly and suggest Robbing the Bees as an additional title to check into if you like this one!

In THE PHILOSOPHER FISH, Richard Adams Carey has written an epic chronicle of the sturgeon--a fish species rapidly approaching extinction wherever it swims--as well as of its precious product, caviar. Selling for as much as one hundred dollars an ounce, caviar has become an icon of status and success, and as such, it has led to the inevitable decline of that curious and prehistoric fish: the sturgeon.

Carey exams both the fish as a species as well as the industry that seeks to exploit it. The fascinating and ancient phylogeny of the sturgeon notwithstanding, this fish is clearly in trouble. In the last two decades, sturgeon populations have shrunk to less than one third of what they were. Much of U.S. trade in caviar, as elsewhere, is illegal, but up until now, those who are working to save the sturgeon are largely ineffective. As in the drug trade, the potential rewards to be reaped by the caviar industry have led to energetic smuggling operations, the mislabeling of sturgeon species on caviar tins, as well as other shenanigans. Among the many storylines covered in THE PHILOSOPHER FISH, Carey follows the efforts of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to stymie the illegal trade in caviar, though as a result of 9/11, their resources have largely been diverted elsewhere.

Carey also follows several of the sturgeons' champions in this world as they seek to improve the fish's plight. There is some slight hope in the efforts of those that hatchery-spawn sturgeon species for aquacultural purposes and possibly for future restocking projects. In his search for every sturgeon-related experience he could find, Carey even ice-fishes for sturgeon in Lake Winnebago, one of the few places in the world where this can be done (strict quotas make the season as short as only 2 days a year), but he clearly feels conflicted about it (he didn't catch anything). He drinks vodka along the shores of the Volga River as he observes the trade, both legal and illegal, of the world's most famous caviar locales.

THE PHILOSOPHER FISH takes the reader around the world, from Sacramento to the shores of the Caspian Sea. Many of the stories involve intrigue and espionage of the highest order. Others are humorous or bitter-sweet. Still others offer hope. All are intensely interesting. I enjoy reading books that tell me more than I ever wanted to know about one circumscribed subject. THE PHILOSOPHER FISH is such a book, and I give it my highest recommendation.

Jeremy W. Forstadt

The sturgeon has been associated with the luxury food caviar since the days of the Persian Empire, with both wealth and sex appeal associated to its ingestion over the centuries - but today it's a fast-vanishing fish, threatening to take with it the people who depend on it for a living. Sturgeon natural history is examined by Carey, who journeys around the world to uncover its habits, habitat, and those profiting from it. Anticipate more than a natural history alone though: international politics, economics, and world diplomacy are all deftly examined with the sturgeon at the heart of all issues.

A philosophical enquiry into the origin of our ideas of the sublime and beautiful, 1759

Burke points out the things all around us that we take for granted but which really are absolutely amazing in his discourse on the sublime. A galloping stead, the expanse of a starry night, or a range of towering, snow-capped mountains. Burke points out these awe-some sights which in themselves provoke us to ask of their origins.

This book can be repetitious as Burke attempts to make, especially on taste, his point absolutely clear (I've got one of the later editions - 1772.).

Additionally, some of the lines in the book are near-timeless and are good to have around to reference from.

Edmund Burke's 1757 treatise, "A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful," is a clearly written, well-argued, and variously inflected work of philosophy. Coming out of and contending with the traditions of philosophies of passion, understanding, and aesthetics from Aristotle and Longinus to Descartes, Hobbes to Locke, and Shaftesbury to Hume, Burke would seem to be taking on a world of difficulty at the tender age of 28. However, Burke manages to maintain control and exercise great wit in his treatise by confining his "Enquiry" to the ways we interact with the physical world, and how in this interaction, we formulate our aesthetic ideas of sublimity and beauty.

Burke's "Enquiry" is divided into five parts, with an introduction. The introduction is perhaps his most witty segment, as he tries, as Shaftesbury, Addison, and Hume before him, to formulate a standard of Taste, a popular subject of conjecture in the 18th century. Physically, and not without some irony, he chooses to speak of Taste primarily as a feature of eating. In response to his predecessors, though, he does say that since our attitudes toward the world come from our senses, that the majority of people can see (sight being very important) and react; thus all people are capable of some degree of Taste. Education and experience, he must admit, though, do refine Taste. In Part One, Burke examines the individual and social causes which arouse our sense of the sublime and the beautiful, those being the primal feelings of terror/pain and love/pleasure, respectively. Throughout the "Enquiry," Burke insists that these are not opposites strictly speaking - that pain and pleasure are mediated by a neutral state of indifference, which is the natural state of man. (Compare that idea to Hobbes and Locke!)

Parts Two, Three, and Four find Burke explaining his notion of the passions in relation to his basis of the physical world. Grandeur, potential threat, darkness, and ignorance for Burke excite our nerves and produce the sublime, a feeling of terror which is simultaneously delightful as long as it does not cause immediate pain. These he finds both in the physical world and in tragedies of literature and history. Smallness, softness, clarity, and weakness delimit the beautiful, which produces affection and sympathy. The contrasts and interventions that Burke makes throughout the "Enquiry" on these bases are variously inflected with issues of anxiety over gender roles, race, and power. Burke's politics give the work a joyful and troubling complexity to the literary minded.

Part Five, then, is a look at the effect that words, language, and poetry can have in influencing our affect in regards to the sublime and the beautiful. In it, he gathers together statements he sprinkles throughout the treatise on the nature of poetry - that its emphasis on representation of emotion, rather than imitation of objects, gives it a power that is perhaps unequalled even by nature. In Burke's "Enquiry," one can see a nascent fascination with landscape, mystery, and sensation that would find its flowering in the Gothic and Romantic movements of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His insistent break with earlier philosphers who combined aesthetics and morality is a serious challenge to moral philosophy with regard to art and Taste. His physical descriptions of emotional response prefigures Freud's psychological ponderings in "Three Essays on Sexuality" and "Beyond the Pleasure Principle," as well as linguistic theory. In all, a fascinating and complicated work for being as short as it is.

This review is dedicated to the memory of Vernon Lau. Unfortunately, Burke did not deal in the "Enquiry" with the pain or terror of immediate personal loss. One can only wonder if Burke's obsession with philosophical distance between people and fear wasn't motivated by a loss of his own.

Burke's Enquiry is a surprising and remarkable little work. If you expect the Burke who fits your stereotype of the conservative Tory politician, that is not what you will find here at all--but rather a clear and insightful discussion of our feelings and emotions of awe and beauty in nature and in art, and especially poetry.

Based on self-observation and reflection, Burke takes a scientific, almost Newtonian approach to the fascinating question of what it is that makes us feel the presence of the sublime and the beautiful.

These are amazing observations for a 28-year-old--remarkable as well because they were written in 1757. Consistent with the 18th Century outlook, he refers to the emotions as "the passions," and it's obvious he's done a good deal of thinking about them.

The sublime, for Burke, is generated by passions connected to self preservation and which "turn on pain and danger. They are simply painful when their causes immediately affect us. They are delightful when we have an idea of pain or danger without being actually in such circumstances. This delight I have not called pleasure because it is different enough from any idea of positive pleasure. Whatever excites this delight, I call sublime."

By beauty, Burke means the quality or qualities in bodies by which they cause love or some passion similar to it. He makes sure to distinguish love from lust or desire. This is quite a different view than the Platonic view of beauty as resonant with eternal forms and ideas.

Burke identifies specific qualities that generate beauty: to be comparatively small, smooth, having parts not angular but melted into one another. He cites the example of a dove as a creature having this beauty.

There is a big difference between admiration and love. The sublime, which is the cause of the former, always dwells on great objects and terror; the latter on small ones and pleasing.

Burke's Enquiry refers almost exclusively to the physical and emotional properties, and he provides many examples of shapes and forms which do or do not evoke the sublime and beautiful--so that we can be clear about what he is talking about. This work is concrete--not at all abstract as one might expect of a philosophical work.

Will today's readers find Burke's work interesting? It's a good bet that many will. The idea of the sublime seems a bit dated, yet it is still with us in great natural scenery, the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, etc. And something very much in evidence, for example in the popular photography of Ansel Adams. The concept of beauty in today's popular culture has become so watered down (there's now a beauty "industry," complete with beauty "products") that it should do the contemporary reader good to consider Burke's idea of what true beauty is. There's good reason to hope the idea of beauty in art and poetry may make a comeback--and not be viewed as elitist or aristocratic snobbery.

Oxford's good little edition contains the Introduction on Taste, which Burke added after 1757, and a good chronology and textual notes.

Remember taste? That is something people used to strive to possess. In the tastelessness of this postmodern world, a little consideration of taste would do us all some good.

Know these Vignettes! Nothing more to say. They will be tested over. Period :) Terribly boring subject, but points are points.

Using this review source helped me sleep better before the exam, because I felt ready for the "case-based" style of the boards that everyone kept telling me about. This is a great series, but I don't think it should be used as a stand alone review source. Case-based coverage of topics means that some topics are missed/not covered. However, the topics covered by this volume were very high yield for my exam. Definitely worth the money!

Not a big fan of behavioral science, but this book makes it bearable by focusing on what you'll be tested on and helping you distinguish similar conditions from each other. Good biostatistics section also included. Great information and great figures to help you understand the info. Strongly recommend - the rest of the series is also outstanding.

I'm not much for writing reviews, but this book and series helped me so much I felt obligated to let people know about it. I'm very interested in psychiatry, which is why I applied to medical school, thus I wanted to write a review on this particular volume of the series. This book is composed of 50 case presentations with questions at the end of each case, followed by the explanations/answers to the questions.

The cases and explanations are superb, concise and get right to the "meat and potatoes" of every subject. After taking step 1, I can recommend this format without hesitation. I also thought the BRS Behavioral Science review book was very good.

Know these Vignettes! Nothing more to say. They will be tested over. Period :)

There was a lot of material in the books in this series, yet I found myself getting through them quickly and retaining a lot of the information, I think because the material is so well presented and explained. Great cases and the format is tailor-made for current USMLE format. This author really understand what the board question writers are into. For me, this type of review was the best way for me to get ready for Step 1.

This is wonderful review books. Excellent writing and informacion. Great pictures and examples. I do much, much better on exam from this books.

After studying like crazy for a full month for the USMLE, I needed a break from reading textbooks. I decided to check out this case-based review because a friend recommended it. I am still thanking him for this recommendation. This book and the other books in the series really prepare you well for the USMLE, because they get you used to the long clinical vignettes that made up most of my exam. The cases and explanantions are EXTREMELY high-yield and very concise but thorough. I recommend the whole series for anyone who wants to do well on the Step 1 exam.

the poetic edda is one of the greatest collections of poetry of all times. it contains the beautifully vivid "volupso", the norse apocalypse poem, the comedic ballads, the "wrangling of Loki" and "Lay of Thrmy", the proverbial wisdom of the "sayings of har" and the mournful lays of the larger-than-heroes, the volsungs and niflungs. the edda is better written than Beowulf, the more popular northern epic, and the rhythmic verse gives it more aesthetic appeal than most epic poems. the meter, based on alliteration and caesura, whether rhythmic fornyrdislag or lilting ljodahattr, is much more pleasing to the ear than classical blank verse, which has sticter syllable stress patterns. unfortunately, the edda is not in very good condition. their are gaps in the manuscripts, and there are numerous places where it appears a scribe covered up a gap with extraneous material. the poems vary greatly in quality, and you need a good understanting of norse myths to understand what is going on (i recommend Norse Stories: Retold from the Eddas by Hamilton Mabie). none the less, the edda is a wonderful read for fans of poetry, epics, or norse mythology.

Bellows translation does a very good job at preserving the metric rhythm of the norse poems, and a fairly good job of preserving the alliteration, while avoiding the archaism of Hollander. his grammer and word choice is a little "olde", but it is still far more aesthetically pleasing the Larrington's translation, and much more accessible than Hollander's. Dronke's translation is also excellent, but only one of five parts of it is currently in print, and it is absurdly priced, but see if you can find it at your library. unfortunately, thus far Dover has only reprinted half of Bellows' translation, this volume contains only the "mythological" lays, so we can only hope they will publish the heroic poems soon, but anyone serious about reading the edda will want to get more than one translation anyway.

A Dover reprint of the Mythological section (The Lays of the Gods) from the poetic Edda, a collection of Old Norse poems compiled in the 1200s from older oral traditions. First published by the American-Scandinavian Foundation in 1923. It's a slow read, primarily because almost every page is crammed with footnotes. The translation seems pretty good - it attempts to imitate the form of the Old Norse poetry, and the language at times is very moving with vivid imagery and sonic resonance. The abundant footnotes bog down the reading, but they are necessary since the Eddic poems were originally composed for an audience already familiar with Norse mythology. I went into this book knowing nothing about the subject, and by the time I had finished, with the help of Mr. Bellows' notes along the way, I had developed a real thirst for more. Somewhat difficult reading, but for somebody with a literary bent this is an excellent introduction to the world of Norse legendry. It certainly begs a second reading, ignoring the footnotes and just enjoying the poetry.

This is an excellent translation from Henry Bellows, easy to understand and with many footnotes. This is the version I use when I read the poems aloud.

The spelling he chose for transliterated names doesn't follow the common style, Voluspo is usually Voluspa, Hovamol is usually Havamal, etc, but these differences are minor and easy to get used to. The print is a facsmile (typical of this publisher) but clear and easy to read, and the binding is good quality (unlike products from some similar companies).

Unfortunately Dover only published half of the book, the section referred to to as the "Mythological Lays", and have omitted the "Heroic Lays", assuming I suppose that we'd only want to read the poems referring directly to the gods. They do clearly admit the omission at the beginning of the book. Much of the ancient scandinavian works we have are regarding heroes related to the gods, so to focus completely on the gods themselves is to miss pieces of the whole picture. Some researchers (in the minority) even suggest that the "Heroic Lays" are actually stories about the gods under different names, which was a very common practice (as you'll see when you read the poems that are included). So I consider the omission very unfortunate.

Despite that complaint I think this book is worth the cost. Unless you want to print your own (the Bellows translation is in the public domain), this book is an excellent choice for what it does have. Just be aware of what you're missing.

Edit: Dover has recently announced that they will finally release the second half of the book, The Poetic Edda: The Heroic Poems (Dover Value Editions)

This is the "bible" for Asatruars and Odinists everywhere. This book is pretty easy to read once you figure out the way the words are arranged. Foot notes include variations of translation, and so sometimes the reader must come up with his/her own conclusion about a certain word or name. All in all, the Poetic Edda, whoever originally composed the works, is a great read and can be enjoyed by poetry collectors, lovers of mythology, and people who are interested in ancient Norse storytelling.

Brilliant introduction to the field of political philosophy, first and foremost with a view to the English-speaking liberal tradition. Easy to read, yet this thematically structured book covers the most important topics in depth.

As a Habermasian and Scandinavian social democrat, what Swift presents as leftist views appears to me to be the views of the centre-right. Still, the book's exquisite conceptual rigour (which one would expect from an analytical philosopher) actually helped me sharpening my understanding on liberty/freedom within the Scandinavian model of distribution.

Overall, this book is highly recommended. It presents itself as a beginners guide, but is has a lot to offer to the advanced reader as well. For example, Amartya Sen's name is not mentioned in the chapter on social justice. Yet over a few paragraphs, elegantly interwoven in the general text, Swift explains the basic structure of Sen's so-called "capability approach".

I've been using Adam Swift's Political Philosophy: An Beginner's Guide for Students and Politicians (UK) in my Political Philosophy course this semester, and, having now had several students thank me for assigning it, I should probably recommend it more widely. The book is written at an angle to my course. The course goes through the main ideas of various important contemporary theorists of justice: Rawls, Sen, Nozick, Milton Friedman (ok, he's the odd-one-out, but my view is that nobody should leave college without reading chapters 1,2 and 6 of Capitalism and Freedom, and I abuse my position as a professor to do my bit), Kymlicka, Okin, Fraser, and G.A. Cohen. The book is more conceptual; it consists of chapters on Social Justice, Equality, Freedom, Community and (in the new, second, edition) Democracy, which go through various distinctions and problems in thinking about those concepts, and it only refers to the work of particular philosophers insofar as it is relevant to the problem at hand. The book also includes a lovely discussion of the division of labour between political philosophers on the one hand and political activists and politicians on the other, and offers a semi-sympathetic diagnosis of the reasons that politicians often seem to be such uncareful thinkers about matters of value. It really is a superb piece of writing, accessible to anyone with an interest in these matters, but somehow achieving the accessibility without compromising the complexity of the issues in question.

I usually feel obliged to talk in class a good deal about the books I assign, but I haven't been talking about Swift's book much because it getes everything right (so nothing to argue with) and is written with such precision and transparency that there's nothing to clarify or explain. I do frequently use arguments or ideas from the book when explaining particular positions in the authors we are studying. I had expected some irritation from students for making them read a book that we don't discuss, but, as I say, several of them have (I suppose rather insultingly) thanked me because they find that it is an easy read that illuminates the other readings (more than my lectures do?). Its a great book for anyone who wants to understand better what political philosophers do, especially I would say if you have a background in the social sciences, and the perfect holiday gift for the politically engaged but intellectually serious young person in your life.

This very well written book is a nice introduction to contemporary political philosophy. Swift's approach is a bit unusual. Rather than a traditional historical approach, Swift has selected 5 of the most important themes in modern political philosophy; social justice, liberty, equality, community, and democracy. Swift is mainly concerned with providing readers with the essential intellectual tools to approach these themes. He provides a series of concise descriptions and discussions of contemporary thinking about the themes. Swift's primary goal is not provide a comprehensive analysis of contemporary thinking but rather to present clear definitions of the key questions and fair depictions of the most important approaches to those questions. Swift tries to present the best aspects of different approaches. He is not, however, uncritical. In the spirit of clarity and presenting good examples of careful analysis, he articulates strong criticism of some widespread but erroneous views. Von Hayek, Berlin's influential Two Concepts of Liberty, and Communitarian criticisms of Liberalism get very effective critiques. Each section has a good final section recommending further reading.

Now in a revised and expanded second edition featuring a new chapter specifically about democracy, Political Philosophy: A Beginners' Guide for Students and Politicians by Adam Swift (Fellow in Politics and Sociology, Balliol College) is a highly accessible text for students, lay readers, and novice political philosophers concerning basic political principles that are used to govern society. Chapters describe and discuss philosophical constructs such as social justice, liberty, equality, community, and democracy, and especially dissect common misperceptions and assumptions concerning the denotative meaning of certain principles and labels. Laden with examples designed to prompt the reader to think long and hard concerning what political concepts such as "social justice" truly mean, Political Philosophy is enthusiastically recommended not just for students, but for anyone seeking to prepare themselves to cast a well-informed vote in elections.

As the other reviewers have said, this book is an update from the 1975 (or so) edition which was an inspiration at the time. What seemed the most useful in this edition is an updated seed type and source list, since you are looking for compact forms of most items.

I miss the graphic artist who was involved in the first book. The pictures in the new book are charmless. And the new book lacks the diagram of double-digging that is hard to explain verbally.

And I'm just about to get started this spring on a potato barrel. It would seem like a good candidate for mentioning postage-stamp-wise, yet is not covered.

I am a gardening dummy and found this book to be a real "bible" for me when starting my first patio and small in-ground garden plot. This books really lays it all out for you. They go into detail about how to do things organically, as well, if you want to go to all the trouble. But they also tell you the easier alternatives (like buying store organic fertilizer). I would recommend this book to new gardeners as well as experienced ones -- lots of tips on how to get all types of vegetables producing a lot of food for you, when to plant, what to plant with, etc.

...and if this is as good as that one (circa 1975) then it gets 5 stars. I (like the author) too had been failing miserably in gardening - until I read his book. Unlike many other books on the subject of bio-intensive gardening, this one was encouraging and made it sound so easy. It ended up being very easy and very rewarding. Now I tell everyone - double dig, amend heavily, plant close together. Get this book!

I've grown vegetables in the past, when I was a teenager, but now that I'm going to try again in my thirties, I wanted to brush up on the best way to get as many vegetables as possible out of a small mountain garden. Following the authors' directions I measured my space, made a list of the number of plants for each vegetable based on the size of my family, and then used their spacing recommendations to see if it would all fit, taking into account intercropping and succession planting. It all turned out to be fairly easy to accomplish (on paper at least!), and I'm now shopping for seeds. I'll update this review next fall with my results.