Anne Books

Paul and Anne Ehrlich's THE DOMINANT ANIMAL is not only the most sensible and up-to-date book I've read about sustainability; it's also well organized and well written, a true delight to read. As the bad news increasingly piles up -- mass extinctions on land and in the oceans, decreased availability of cheap energy, increased unemployment, floods and droughts leading to crop failures, polar ice caps melting, and famines, to mention only a few -- it becomes crucial that we quickly make informed and sensible choices. THE DOMINANT ANIMAL provides well researched and balanced pros and cons about the most important issues facing us today. I can only agree with the solutions the authors favor, from the unbridled consumption issue (my current line of work) to their analysis of nuclear energy, pp. 306-308 (pertinent to my past life as a physicist). Though the news are grim, I have great hope that if books such as this are widely read we'll be able save ourselves and our grandchildren from a very harsh future that is already encroaching on us.

This extraordinarily intelligent and eclectic book presents a deeply engaging synthesis of the ways in which our genetic material, our technologies (both agricultural and industrial) and our forms of social organization have evolved to produce the global civilization was all inhabit. The benefits to our material lives have been nearly as incalculable as the damages to our physical environment. The promise of our inventions - most recently, our global network of communications - is increasingly threatened by the growth of our population and the unintended consequences of our technologies. The wild card lies in the collective intelligence of our newly globalized culture. "The Dominant Animal" is an eloquent recitation of the efforts and accidents that have brought us to this state. But it leaves us with an unavoidable sense of responsibility for the critical and irreversible choices that mark this turning point in the history of human cultural evolution.

How has the potent mix of evolution, environment and culture forged our past and will forge our future? Told by masterful storytellers, the book traces our historical trajectory under these influences. The stories engage and inform. Wither our perilous future? The answers lie in the stories.... a great read.

A fascinating in-depth look at the history of the rise of homo sapiens and the effect of our species on the global environment. All those interested in the interaction of cultural evolution and ecology should have this in their library.

The authors of THE DOMINANT ANIMAL carry on a persistent battle to acquaint the often resistant population from observing scientific truths. The Ehrlichs, as do many scientists, keep us on the track to learning what is happening in the world around us, and often, as what has happened and what will happen. On occasion, the timetable has been somewhat off, but that does not negate the value of the information. They must overcome the uneducated, misinformed and prejudiced, a mighty task. Because most of their books since The Population Bomb are read by too few, what I would like to happen is that their search for the truth might be more widely circulated in the popular press.

Allan J. Rosenberg, M.D.
San Carlos, California

Like _Eros the Bittersweet_, this is a fine example of Carson's scrupulous and beautifully- written scholarship. And like all of her work, the strangeness of her intensity and consideration is charming and virtuosic. The juxtaposition of Simonides and Celan *works* in spite of the centuries separating their oeuvres; even as she's making connections within the text, one wonders how she's going to pull it off--and then she does. Carson's discussion of poetic economy (both monetary and linguistic)--a topic not often discussed in criticism--illuminates the coinages and clipped syntax of Celan, providing leverage on reading a difficult poet, and will most likely prove to be a useful critical tool for reading other modern poets. Carson couples intellectual density with warm, lyrical prose, yielding a text of intricate research and rewarding insight--a rare and real pleasure for readers of poetry and/or criticism.

This book is unusual in many ways. Firstly, it dares to compare Simonides of Keos, a Greek poet of the 5th century BC, and Paul Celan, a 20th century poet who wrote in German. Secondly, it dares to apply economic ideas, in particular those of Karl Marx, to explain poetry.

What connects Simonides and Celan? They share a sense of alienation and an acute awareness of the limits of what "is;" and they are both masters of composition and language. Anne Carson points out that she chose to look at two men at the same time because the attention devoted to one enhances the attention devoted to the other: "Sometimes you can see a celestial object better by looking at something else, with it, in the sky." (viii)

A particularly fascinating aspect of both poets' work is their preoccupation with nothingness and negation. "Negation links the mentalities of Simonides and Celan. Words for 'no,' 'not,' 'never,' 'nowhere,' 'nobody,' 'nothing,' dominate their poems and create bottomless places for reading." (9) It is exactly these bottomless places in their poems, invisible to the cursory reader, that Anne Carson knows to locate.

Anne Carson divides the book into four chapters. In the first chapter, "Alienation," Carson uses analogies from the sphere of economics most extensively. She explains how the changing economic situation of poets in the fifth century BC accounts for the fact that Simonides was considered the stingiest person of his time (in addition to being one of the smartest). The "economy" in the title of the book refers to the actual life of the poet as a recipient of gifts and money, and to the act of composing poetry. The "unlost" in the title is a more complex idea and hints at the themes of negation and nothingness explored in the other three chapters.

In chapter two, "Visibles Invisibles," Carson discusses Simonides' philosophy of art ("the word is a picture of things") and how painting a picture relates to "painting" a poem. "Simonides is Western culture's original literary critic, for he is the first person in our extant tradition to theorize about the nature and function of poetry." (46) Carson goes on to show how Simonides and Celan use grammar to "render a relationship that is ... deeper than the visible surface of the language," (52) and how both poets' "language has the capacity to uncover a world of metaphor that lies inside all our ordinary speech like a mind asleep." (58) She points to the exact locations in the poems where poetic language indicates an invisible "reality" beyond the reality of ordinary speech, where poetry arises from words and the (visible) surface of language reflects a deeper (invisible) truth.

Chapter three studies Simonides' epitaphs. "No genre of verse is more profoundly concerned with seeing what is not there, and not seeing what is, than that of the epitaph." (73) Epitaphs are inscriptions on graves. Simonides was the most prolific composer of epitaphs in the ancient world, Carson tells us, and set the conventions of the genre. "Tears of Simonides" were the byword for poetry of lament used by Catullus. Epitaphs have two economic aspects: the economics of remuneration and the economics of composition, as the poet has to use his words economically to fit them on the grave-stone. Epitaphs are also related to the visible and the invisible because they connect the living with the dead: "The responsibility of the living to the dead is not simple. It is we who let them go, for we do not accompany them. It is we who hold them here - deny them their nothingness - by naming their names. Out of these two wrongs comes the writing of epitaphs." (85)

Chapter four, "Negation," focuses our attention on the fact that "nothing" needs close thought. "The word lends itself to scary word play, to unanswerable puns, to the sort of reasoning that turns inside out when you stare at it. Simonides and Celan are both poets who enjoy this sort of reasoning and who orient themselves toward reality, more often than not, negatively." (100) Negation is a very powerful tool, and Carson wants our attention for the difference in implied meaning between, say, "Life is suffering" and "Nothing is not painful among men," as Simonides phrased it. Negation is also something uniquely human because a negative is a verbal event, "a peculiarly linguistic resource whose power resides with the user of words."(102) When you say "this is not that" you need to put something present ("this") and something absent ("that") on the screen of your imagination. "The interesting thing about a negative, then, is that it posits a fuller picture of reality than does a positive statement." (102) Carson then shows with examples from Simonides' and Celan's poetry how much beyond the factual these poets can express by not saying "something" but "not nothing."

"Economy of the Unlost" is truly brilliant whenever Anne Carson dissects a poem because she brings to the task both her qualities as scholar of classical Greece and modern poet. I do not always agree with the way she employs metaphors from economics, but I take it that she uses the terms introduced by Karl Marx to point my attention to noteworthy aspects of the poetry even if by today's standards these terms have turned out to be incorrect. When Carson claims, "what is striking in Marx's analysis of the issue is this insight: that to value a piece of work is to price the mortal span," (107) then she and Karl are obviously mistaken. A doodle produced by Bill Gates during a meeting would definitely fetch a higher price than a doodle by yours truly done in the same mortal span of time. But these are quibbles of an economist; they should not detract from my praise of Carson's work.

The bottom line is: this is an outstanding work that brings the best of academic scholarship to the interpretation of poetry. It deserves every of its five stars.

I can't say enough good things about these lectures, which mesh Celan, Simonides and Karl Marx with a grace that makes their union seem inevitable. The way Carson folds together money, language and memory reminds me of Ezra Pound without the shouting. Her insights have a math-like clarity ("Eureka! I've got it!") that brings two extreme ends of our history under the same light. You'll never mistake negation and loss for modern inventions after reading this book. The coins have changed since Simonides's time but the economy's remarkably the same. The funny thing is, after Carson's dazzling treatment, lament never looked so good.

All parents want a happy, confident child, but, contrary to what the Christmas letter may suggest, few are lucky enough to raise the perfect problem-free child. This book dispels the notion of perfect (You are not perfect. Your child is not perfect. Get over it.) Instead, the book helps parents understand why the child acts the ways he does and offers practical--and often fun--activities and exercises to deal with the hard-to-manage child.

Written with empathy and respect for both the parent and the child, the book is divided into chapters that address the intense irritable child, the oppositional child, and the clueless, disorganized child, with separate chapters devoted to children who suffer from sensory overload, anxiety, depression, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Case histories bolster the understanding of specific problems.

Helpful tips are broken out in boxes. Feeling guilty about using rewards to get your child to eat new foods or do his homework? It is very reassuring to read the tip: Bribery is the term used for something illegal or immoral.

What sets the book apart and makes it so useful to both parents and--I'm guessing here--therapists, is the Toolbox, a lengthy section of dozens and dozens of activities and exercises to address the problems of the hard-to-manage child.

Here you will find ways to help a child calm down, build self-esteem, manage out-of-control behavior, and improve interpersonal skills. The toolbox also contains suggestions to help parents provide structure and deal with the many battles around homework, mealtime and bedtime. The tools for developing responsibility and cooperation for chores are usefully broken into different age categories.

If you are perfect or your child is perfect, you will not need this book. As for me, it's on my reference shelf but may not stay there, for I've already lent it out twice.

What I really like about this book is that it is clear and straightforward and kind. The authors set out the many types of kids who are hard to parent, and then give you ideas for how to help you help your kid to be better adjusted to the world. The book is actually helping me to not feel so overwhelmed as a mom, even though one of the chapters is about helping kids who get overwhelmed!
It is a useful, practical book filled with ideas you can start putting into practice right away. I will recommend this book to friends and I reccommend it to you.

This book is an absolute must read for anyone who interacts with children, either professionally or personally. Drs. DeGangi and Kendall do a beautiful job of explaining how and why children can be challenging as well as offering simple and straightforward solutions for parents and professionals. Their abilities to make incredibly frustrating and overwhelming scenarios with children (and we know what they are!) manageable and treatable is simply priceless. Their styles are highly informative, entertaining, witty and humorous. The language is perfectly accessible for professionals, family members and curious bystanders. I promise you will laugh and cry at the stories and find yourself somewhere in the book.

I particularly found two features of this book to be incredibly useful and unique: 1) the 2-page `How to Use This Book' helps the reader to navigate the material and to select relevant sections as needed and 2) the `Toolbox' (praise the toolbox!). The Toolbox is the most fabulous creation in this book and provides the reader with skills and ideas to use IMMEDIATELY. It's essentially the authors combined years of experience/training/expertise condensed into one invaluable chapter. Furthermore, each tool has its own motif which is scattered throughout the book alerting the reader along the way to its helpful tips.

As someone who works and plays with children, I wish I had this book years ago as part of my clinical training. I appreciate the straightforward explanations and easy to implement solutions. I have already started to utilize many of the ideas in the book with great success. Furthermore, it has provided me with a language and resource to share with parents I work with as well as family and friends who have children. This book is not just a great tool for difficult to treat children, but for all children. I can't recommend it enough!

A great book for the medical student. Easy to find desired information, tends to focus on the fundamentals. The book addresses topics that seem to come up in questions asked of the medical student. Used copies are easy to find therefore it's a more affordable resource than some of the alternatives.

This book is written very well and is totally up to date. Only useful if you want to go into ENT. Way too detailed otherwise. I've seen lots of 3rd year students who want to go into otolaryngology carrying it around in their pockets on ENT rotations. It is not the place to review anatomy. You will need a separate source for anatomy.

Excellent review of otolaryngology, many quick read chapters with tons of facts!

I wanted to know more about Anne Rice Vampires books.Lestad the vampire,but I like to read them in spanish ,that's my original language. Mildred Santana

I enjoyed reading the book, and then watching the movie. I think it would have been great if the director of the movie would have included the whole book in the movie. I just wish they make Vampire lestad, and then the whole chronicles.

I love Interview with the vampire, actually its my favorite movie, i have seen it so many times that i can say each line by heart, and from my heart too. People often make me feel as if i were crazy. I say it is just because they will never feel the way i do about it. It entered to my heart and kept in my soul.

More than anything, what children need are happy, confident, peaceful parents. This book teaches us how to find that for ouselves; and, how to then allow our children to discover it within themselves ... the essence of parenting.

This is a great book. It totally reshaped my views towards parenting, and helped me focus my own life as well. It teaches that you can't be a good parent unless you love yourself first. If you work on that, everything else falls into place. I'm sending it to all my friends.

After reading this book, I gave a big sigh of relief. Parenting could be fun, joyful, and full of the love I feel for my children. That love is within me and all I needed was this book and a simple shift in attitude to realize this. Everything that Anne and Vic have written is simple, which is not to say that it is easy. It requires trust and discipline, but our children, and ourselves, are certainly worth this. This book doesn't preach or give you lists of things to do, but instead guides you gently on your path as a parent and a person. I can honestly say that this book will help parents with children of any age, and any question you may have about your parenting. You already know the answers, and they are within you. The Essence of Parenting will help you to see that what you seek lies within your own heart. I can't imagine my life without this book!

Every Minute On Earth
This work is extremely useful. It may be a cliche to say so, but the book is both educational and entertaining. Further, the facts are accurate and verifiable, and the illustrations also add something. I particularly appreciated that the authors used metric measurements as well as the English system.
I can see this book as a good supplementary text at the Middle School level, but can be enjoyed by the general reader. It could find a niche in science as well as social studies.
I wish that there had been biographies included on the authors, who are father and son.
Read and enjoy!

I found the book fascinating. It would be great for preteens and older grade school students. I plan on buying three more - one for my 13 year old nephew and one for each of my married kids (to use as their kids get older and ask more questions).

I absolutely loved this book!

It's been awhile since I found myself totally engrossed within the pages of a non-fiction book, but authors Steve & Matthew Murrie managed to keep my attention from the first page to the last with EVERY MINUTE ON EARTH. More importantly, the authors deliver exactly what the title promises -- totally fun facts about things that happen on Earth every sixty seconds.

The book is broken down into eight main categories: Earth, Space, The Human Body, Technology, Animals, Food, Pop Culture, and Sports. Each category is also followed by activities that you can do yourself (or with friends!) that are fun, easy, and awesome!

So, what exactly does happen on Earth every sixty seconds? Here are just a few examples:

2,000 thunderstorms occur.
45 million gallons of water go over Niagra Falls.
2,271 working satellites orbit Earth.
A hair grows 0.00027 inch.
954 camera phones are sold.
15,000 gallons of air are inhaled by a blue whale.
21,000 pizzas are baked.
180 Barbies are sold.
115 soccer balls are made -- and 61 of them are in Pakistan.

Totally cool, right? And these are just a few of the amazing facts you'll find in this book! Believe me, everyone needs a copy of EVERY MINUTE ON EARTH in their personal library. Just think, you can learn something new every minute (and maybe find yourself added to the next addition of this great read!).

Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"

I need to order 11 Nos.of same kind for my colleagues in my class. Would you be able to give me free shipping for this order?
since you give free shipping for over $25.00 orders.
Reply me immediately so I can oder them.
Thank you in advanvce
Don.N.S.Algama

This is a very concise, yet thorough look at our language. It starts with the history of languages, the percentage of the world population that speak the most common languages, a diagram of Indo-European languages and which one evolved from what. It defines terms like "semantics", "phonetics", "phonemics", "phonics", "morphemics", etc. It gives nine different alphabets, including sign language, smoke signals and morse code. It gives examples of Hebrew and Japanese. There are some very informative drawings of the mouth, and how sounds are made.

And that's just the first 15 pages.

If you want to know what the "CAT" in CAT scan stands for, or why we write "please R.S.V.P." on party invitations, you can find the answers here.

This book is very nicely laid out, easy to read and aesthetic, with nice pictures and lots of color. There is just tons of information in this book, but it's not weighty or difficult to understand. Unlike a typical textbook, one piece can be understood at a time - one doesn't need to start from the beginning and read all the way through it.

I knew this book would be useful for my kids, but when I read the page that completely - and simply - defined "past perfect tense", "present perfect tense" and "future perfect tense", I was sold. I immediately called my friend who is the head teacher at a K-12 school, and told her she needed to get this book! (Turns out she already has it, and uses it all the time with her students.)

I can't say enough good things about this book!

As a home schooler I continually search for quality books at an affordable price. This book was an excellent find. The amount of information included here is exceptional. One look at the table of contents, I was sold. It covers topics from the history of language and alphabets to creative writing and reading literature, and of course, all the basics are here too. Each section is color coded for quick and easy reference. "Everything You Need To Know About English" makes English easy and understandable. This little book is not just a great value for the home schooling household, but should be in every home with school aged children or where anyone may need a well prepared English reference book.

This book touched my heart more than any devotional book I've ever read. Emilie Barnes gently helps us to share with the Lord all of the things that burden us. I purchased this book several years ago and have used it repeatedly. I keep it on display near my tea cup collection and when asked about it, always recommend it to others. I have given it as a gift to several friends who love it as much as I do.

This bk was given to me as a gift. I have truly enjoyed it. It came at a very needed time. I have found myself singing FILL MY CUP LORD, I LIFT IT UP LORD. Emilie is so real in this bk. It is so encouraging. I especially like the 2nd chapter, or devotional about exchanging criticism for encouragment. Anyone that has been harmed by critical words of others will find such love in this chapter. It is so encouraging how important it is to be filled by God. Excellent Bk.

Emily Barnes humbly uses the experiences of her life to gently urge us to lift up our cup of shortcomings to God.

The bright illustrations are perfect for young children and the amount of words on the page is appropriate as well. The sentences are not complex, yet they introduce useful vocabulary that is easy to connect to the pictures. Children learn different types of big working trucks, such as backhoe, snow plow, combine, plow, etc. My 3 year old grandson has me read it over and over. It is obvious that we will soon own the complete series!

When my son was 12 months old, we had a small bookshelf of books we bought from a yard sale. He would constantly pick out THIS ONE no matter where in the shelf we placed it. We would read it to him on request sometimes seven times a day, we sometimes even hid the book!! He has loved this book ever since we began reading to him. I have this book memorized and sometimes I recite it when we dont have the book and he is fussy. The book is easy to read, basic one sentences on each page with big colorful, well-illustrated pictures that are great for pointing out various things, even shows a "red" or "yellow" fire engine! Tells about hoses, pumps, and the differences between ladder trucks vs. pumper trucks as well as fire engines from boats. Very informative, yet short. This book is great to read to any age from birth to at least 3. We love it so much, we bought a second "just in case". It has sparked my 2 yr old son's love for Fire Engines to date!!!

This is one of my son's favorite boooks. He constantly brings it to us to read. The words are simple, yet full of information. And, my daughter loves pointing out things in the illustrations. One they will want to read over and over again.