Burnett Books

Every mother should read this book and gift this book to her daughter(s) and friends. The statistical evidence presented in this book has recently been confirmed in a new study outlined in 'National Review'.

Everyone who loves children and who understand the importance of babyhood will love this book!!

This pithy description of cases by a well-known British homeopath was published first in 1878 and was reprinted in India in 1998. The author employs the simple homeopathic salt remedy Natrum Muriaticum to treat difficult chronic syndromes in a manner that makes clear that the "dynamization" of the salt via a high number of dilutions makes it more potent. After all, he points out, his patients had had plenty of time during their illnesses to absorb and use ordinary salt against the disease, so it must have been something in the preparation of Natrum Muriaticum that differentiated it.
In effect, though the author did not quite get so far, his description and analysis undermine the theory that it is the capacity of water to remember the remedy that constitutes homeopathy's mechanism of action. There is another explanation offered by various observers including D.T. Reilly and me--that homeopathic cures actually depend on the excitation of water in the act of succussion, which, captured in the bonds of lactose pills, ultimately stimulates "proteins" (Reilly) or "red blood cells" (my 2003 book) that in turn effectuate the cure. In other words, homeopathy is an energy therapy that resembles Biophotonic Therapy (Photoluminescence) in its mechanism of action, range of indications, and even in the occurrence of "homeopathic aggravation" in certain indications. This means, of course, that every homeopathic remedy can treat every indication that homeopathy is capable of treating. The only difference is in the dose--i.e., the amount of energy, which rises as the remedy is diluted.
Compton Burnett deserved great credit for "sitting down before truth" and making a good deal of sense of the phenomenon he was studying even though he felt that it flew in the face of common sense.

The only way to find Swann's books is through Amazon's used bookstore members, these days. The author write fantasy fiction based on ancient history themes, usually Greek, sometimes Etruscan or early Rome. Very few writers like this around anymore, unfortunately. Not "genre-ghetto" enough.

We are told that the best stories com from people that write about what they know. So if this story seems insightful it may be because Frederic Forsyth worked for Reuters reporting from London and he wrote the story in hotels from Germany to Austria. He mixes the real, not so real and the plausible to make you think "what if."
I do not want to say much as the fun is being surprised during the reading. However compared to the movie the book is much more in-depth with more characters and details. Manny times you think Forsyth is going off on some tangent and not focusing on the main story; then with out warning the information makes sense later on. One example to look for is the quick encounter with military maneuvers where he describes the tank sergeant.
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It is the night of the John F. Kennedy assassination. Peter Miller, freelance reporter in the process of chasing ambulances is disappointed by the apparent suicide of a person of no consequence.
Turns out the dead man is holocaust survivor Salomon Tauber; he left behind a diary of his experiences. Miller reads this diary and seems particularly interested in some details. This inspires him to do a story on what happed to ex-Nazis. His quest puts him at odds with many people including an organization (O.D.E.S.S.A.) that was designed to help the SS escape justice. He also encounters independent agents out for their own agenda. Then there is the MOSSAD. Everyone accuses Miller of having his own secret agenda and not just out for a story. Can they be right?
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Be sure to also watch the movie with famous actors that actually fit the characters from the book. Naturally a lot of information had to cut out and some sequence changes to fit the media. We still get the full speech from Eduard Roschmann (Maximilian Schell)

The book consists of six volumes, written between 1773 and 1792, and especially the first volume was very interesting to me, because it does not only describe how language originated and evolved, but it gives also a remarkable insight in how man was discussed and defined in the second half of the eighteenth century. The Scottish judge Lord Monboddo, also James Burnet(t), writes about the origin of society, of language, of ideas, the history of mankind as a species, the definition of man, using all kind of strange human creatures to proof his hypotheses. One of those creatures is the ouranutang, who Monboddo believes is a real man, but who is not yet fully developped.
This book is, to my humble opinion, an absolute must for people who are interested in eighteenth century anthropology, linguistics (the other volumes in which Monboddo discusses Greek and Latin authors), history and even metaphysics. Read also 'Antient metaphysics', written by Monboddo, and the unfortunately very rare second edition of the first volume of OPL(1774).

A Passion for Wildlife chronicles the first fifty years of the Canadian Wildlife Service, the federal agency which is responsible for conducting research on certain species of concern, enforcing the Migratory Bird Act and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and educating the Canadian public about its rich natural heritage. It is an impressive and noteworthy history, which I very much enjoyed reading. A Passion for Wildlife was first published in its entirety in Volume 113, Number 1 of The Canadian Field-Naturalist, and, I believe, is still available through the Ottawa Field-Naturalists Club at a much lower cost.

I used to recommend "Difficult Conversations", and now this is the #1 book that I will recommend. Alson and Burnett give many practical suggestions on how to navigate conflict, and help us understand the entire field that we tread when we encounter these situations. The book is very easy to navigate and a great reference tool.

The book begins with an excellent overview of "what is conflict". They then work through this topic from every angle -
- Our own role in the conflict (and how to change our mindset)
- The role of the other person (and potentially "invisible" players)
- If this is really about the present situation, or the past (which is more often the case)

The second half of the book is dedicated to providing very practical advice on transforming the conversation and they walk you through the conversation step by step - creating an opening, communicating needs, engaging the other person to co-create the solution, reframing the conversation, and negotiating the conflict.

If this were an "eBook", I would DEFINITELY have this on my laptop and keep it near as I do my consulting work.

This is one of those life lesson areas that we practice all the time, and often with less than stellar results. Buy the book, you won't regret it!

Marijo Puleo
Make Change Positive++

This is a great book to get children involved in hands on science. The book takes you through a 10 day investigation with pillbugs. I have found that many of my students get over their fear of bugs after doing this project.

This is a marvelous book. It has all the poems plus some new ones (new to me, and I thought I knew the work); the clear textual apparatus would have pleased the great textual scholar-poet himself. Moreover, the notes are truly helpful, adding information about botany, the classics, astrology, and other references that give the poetry additional depth and make these seemingly simple verses richer.

...Housman, Graves's biography tells us, wanted his books inexpensive so as to be widely available. Surely plasticated paper over boards in a perfect binding, no matter what the costs of storage and overhead may be, can't justify this steep a sum.

Ivy Compton-Burnett is an acquired taste. A friend lent me "The Present and The Past" a year ago saying I had to read it. For the first couple of chapters I didn't who was who or understand what was going on. Was this even a novel? It just seemed to be a lot of dialogue in artificial archaic speech. Somewhere in the third chapter I suddenly, in a flash of revelation, `got it'. I understood the tragi-comic `tone' and understood that by concentrating on the subtle nuances of dialogue all the usual content/interest of a novel would become evident. There are distinct characters interacting and there is definitely plot - quite elaborate convoluted, even melodramatic, plot. But all the usual narrative devices of commentary, scene setting and transitions between scenes have been reduced, almost eliminated.

The storytelling occurs through the dialogue. All the characters speak in a stylised formal way, even children. This dialogue has a sophisticated ironic tone that is blackly comic (it frequently makes me laugh out loud), yet explicitly expresses a tragic sense of the hopelessness and tragedy of life. The main distinction between characters is where they stand in the hierarchy of the Victorian household in which all Ivy novels seem to be set. In other words these novels are about power, guilt and complicity: the mind games and power games into which we are all locked - the Victorian household and its characters becoming universal archetypes. (It may be a far-fetched comparison but I think that in both the settings and the rigorously `minimalist' style Ivy is to literature what Japanese director Ozu is to cinema, with a similar emotional punch.)

Because of the concentrated nature of the dialogue, reading Ivy is very intense and she is probably best read in small doses, one chapter at a sitting. But, apart from that, once you `get it' then reading Ivy becomes easy and addictive. It's not like reading "Finnegans Wake". I've now read several more Ivy novels and they are all similar, though "Present and Past" remains my favourite. It's quite short, focused, funny and poignant. We have Cassius, a typical Ivy father/husband: part tyrant part baby. His previous wife suddenly reappears. This appeals to Cassius's narcissism. He thinks he has formed a kind of harem in which he wields absolute power. But then (a little like the infamous harem scene in Fellini's "Eight and a Half") the previous wife and the present wife start to bond with each other and power begins to ebb from Cassius: his ego, his sense of self and then his very existence begin to crumble. Even the children start to deride him. And then a series of extraordinary plot twists... which you'll have to read the book to find out!