Francis Books

Colebrook's contibution to understanding Gilles Deleuze's thinking is especially of interest to anybody starting the study of Deleuze's and Guattari's philosophy. Their philosophy is very hard to grasp, if that is possible at all, by just starting with their original works. I am very greatful to Claire Colebrook and others for "lifting the lawn".

This is an extraodinary book: an astonishingly lucid and well-organized introduction to Deleuze's philosophical project. Most of the secondary literature on Deleuze is simply unhelpful, because it presumes that the reader already grasps Deleuze's tremendously difficult ontological project and terminology. Colebrook begins at the begining, taking the time to explain and define key terms (the virtual, singularity, intensity, affect, becoming, immanence, etc.) and offers rich illustrations of these concepts via literature and film. Indeed, it seems to me that Colebrook understands these terms and their relationships to one another much better than do most of Deleuze's interpreters, who often throw around these terms without either explaining them or seeming to understand them. Other books on Deleuze (e.g., Ronald Bogue's Deleuze and Guattari) proceed book-by-book through Deleuze's career. But Deleuze's thought does not develop chronologically. Rather, throughout his career, Deleuze deployed many of the same concepts in different contexts. Colebrook focuses on these key concepts, which should help the reader through almost any one of Deleuze's texts. There are certainly wonderful high-level explorations of Deleuze's work (e.g., Brian Massumi's User's Guide to Capitalism and Schizophrenia) and very helpful introductions to single works (e.g., Eugene Holland's Deleuze and Guattari's Anti-Oedipus). But this is surely the finest, most astute, accessible and concise introduction to Deleuze's basic philosophical view.

This is an extraodinary book: an astonishingly lucid and well-organized introduction to Deleuze's philosophical project. Most of the secondary literature on Deleuze is simply unhelpful, because it presumes that the reader already grasps Deleuze's tremendously difficult ontological project and terminology. Colebrook begins at the begining, taking the time to explain and define key terms (the virtual, singularity, intensity, affect, becoming, immanence, etc.) and offers rich illustrations of these concepts via literature and film. Indeed, it seems to me that Colebrook understands these terms and their relationships to one another much better than do most of Deleuze's interpreters, who often throw around these terms without either explaining them or seeming to understand them. Other books on Deleuze (e.g., Ronald Bogue's Deleuze and Guattari) proceed book-by-book through Deleuze's career. But Deleuze's thought does not develop chronologically. Rather, throughout his career, Deleuze deployed many of the same concepts in different contexts. Colebrook focuses on these key concepts, which should help the reader through almost any one of Deleuze's texts. There are certainly wonderful high-level explorations of Deleuze's work (e.g., Brian Massumi's User's Guide to Capitalism and Schizophrenia) and very helpful introductions to single works (e.g., Eugene Holland's Deleuze and Guattari's Anti-Oedipus). But this is surely the finest, most astute, accessible and concise introduction to Deleuze's basic philosophical view.

Well, after a couple of years of dabbling into Deleuze, something keeps pulling me back, I think I finally found the book that provides the needed clarity to see Deleuze and his ideas "as if a butterfly pinned to a piece of carboard." This is a really easy to read and lucid book. Now back to Anti-Oedipus and the revolution ahead!

I was impressed with the authors for their clear and lucid style, assembling and relating diverse topics in a simplistic view, ranging from computer science to philosophy, to present a brilliant holistic view of GIS technical infrastructure.

This book fills a very important gap in the GIS literature. There are many good introductory book about GIS (try Burrough, for example), but they have been mostly written having a geographer or an earth scientist as their prospective reader. By contrast, Worboys writes for the computer engineer or programmer who wants to understand how a GIS really works inside. The author is a leading researcher on the field, and the book is clearly and concisely written. If you are a computer professional working in the GIS area, you'll find this book invaluable.

I'm not your average GISer. I have a BS in Mathematics and worked for 15 years as a software developer. This book was a required text for the class in Advanced Vector GIS that was part of my MS in GIS. I currently use it as a reference as I work on my PhD in pure GIScience.

This book covers GIS data structures and databases in a way that a Computer Scientist would appreciate. It covers GIS algorithms in a way that an Applied Mathmetician would like. It covers GIS topology in a way that a Pure Mathmetician could learn from. It covers uncertainty in a way that a Statistician would enjoy.

If you are, say a graduate student in mathematics or computer science and want to understand what all the GIS hype is about, you've found a great, concise volume that covers an intense amount of information. If you are a geographer who needs to formalize some language concerning theory and methods for a publication, then this is a good start.

If you are looking for something like "how to delineate a watershed in ArcView 9", skip it and look elsewhere.

Having read many books of the kind I can state with confidence that this one is the best introductory book on the topic. The authors claim that the book is best-suited to people approaching GISs with a computer-science perspective and/or background and this should be taken into consideration by all prospective buyers. However, the book should still be a most valuable resource to readers from other backgrounds, as it remains the most comprehensive in its domain, and is very readable thanks to the lucid writing style of the authors.

Each chapter except the first, which serves as a general introduction, deals with a particular sub-discipline within GIS. Chapter 2 describes the basics of databases.
Chapter 3 clarifies important topological and metric concepts.
Chapter 4 enters the area of field vs. object data models.
Chapter 5 deals with raster and vector structures as well as with computational geometry and geometric algorithms.
Chapter 6 moves even closer to the physical computer level and discusses indexes (access structures) and trees.
Chapter 7 is about architectures (distributed, homogeneous, heterogeneous systems).
Chapter 8 talks about GIS-interfaces.
Until that point, the book has a very logical structure with each chapter being the logical extension of the next.
Chapters 9 and 10 exist only in this second edition and provide some brief excursions into the topics of handling uncertainty and time in GIS respectively. They go into somewhat less detail than the previous chapters, yet are very well written.

Remember that this book is introductory, hence dont expect to learn the intricate details of topics such as databases and computational geometry. The authors manage however, to strike a fine balance between the amount of concepts and methods being presented and the degree of detail to which each of them is analysed. Therefore the book retains its clear introductory character while maintaining a very high informational content. In addition, the authors have done a fantastic job at compiling relevant bibliographies at the end of each chapter where the readers may pursue additional details should they wish to. The graphics and figures are also self-explanatory and do a fine job at complementing the text. Verbosity and typos are scarce if at all existent.

I recommend this book as the most comprehensive overview of, and a very good reference source for, GISs. It will be invaluable not only for newbies but also for mid to hi-level experts who wish to consolidate their knowledge or have a trusted reference. Undoubtedly, an indispensable resource in the library of anyone interested in geographic information systems.

This book is sometimes referred to as Tagore's response to Kipling's Kim, but it's much more; in fact, there's only a single British official in the novel, and he only appears for several pages. This novel takes place in Kolkata in the mid 1880s (?), and focuses on the generation coming of age a few decades after the Sepoy Rebellion, especially on the Brahman revivalist Gora and his close friend Binoy, who is drawn to a less restrictive code. They form close personal, and gradually romantic connections, with the strong-willed girls in a family involved in the equally restrictive Hindu Samaj movement. Though the characters struggle to reconcile themselves with Bengali etiquette, they also embody the modernizing impulses of the nascent nationalist movement that is informed by English education and social values.

The above may sound dry, but the novel is quite gripping, and it provides a nuanced and loving recreation of a generation struggling to come to terms with India's extreme cultural & religious diversity and the outside influences that place additional strain on it. And, from our post-Partition perspective, we see perhaps the last, best chance to create one, comprehensive Bharatvarsha.

Although it has a very helpful introduction and notes, I've given the work 4 stars because of the occasional misspellings and syntactic trainwrecks that occur every 30 or 40 pages (there aren't many, but when they occur, it's quite messy).

To truly appreciate this book one needs to have some fair idea of the social, religious and political situation of India during the late nineteenth-early twentieth century. This book revolutionised the thinking and beliefs of the then contemporary modern thinkers and intellectuals, laying the foundation of the idea of a secular Indian society. The underlying theme is the essence of being a human, and very few in the history of mankind could find words that brings this out so beautifully (more so in the original Bengali, much of it is lost in the English translation). The reader undergoes the journey of self discovery along with the main protagonist, Gora. The beauty of Tagore's writing is that the unpredicatability and the vulnerability of the characters make them so natural and real, bringing out the inherent self-contradictions of human beings until they discover their true self and then all the cunfusions and the contradictions in one's own faith vanish. One finds one's place in this cosmos, realises the implication of being a human, experiences the beauty of life. And this makes the appeal of the book timeless.

This was one of the first book i had read. i was a teenager then. and although gora being a very bullheaded guy had become my hero. he was a believer. he was a proud Hindu or at least he thought he was a hindu. he was a leader and believed that if he did anything not permitted in hindu society then everyone else wud do it too. he made it his responsibility awaken religious beliefs in society. and in the process he met a family consisting of all women of another cast. he tried to stay away from them but couldn't and fell in love with one of them. but being a responsible hindu he stopped himselves from taking any steps to come closer to her.
the best part was the end of the novel when he comes to know that his all beleifs were baseless. he was not what he had believes himselves to be and that just changed his outlook in life. and it suddenly opened up his heart to each and every human being. he had become a believer of humanism instead of any religion.
women characters were all too good and Lalita was my favorite. all the arguments in the novels teached me a lot about indian society and religion. i had read this book several times since then. This Is a true classic novel.... WE are proud of u Rabindra Nath Tagore.

Gora is inteligent, energetic and a strong believer. He believes in believing and acting for those beliefs. He is strong he is aggressive. He thinks that the strong belief can bring in all the good. Strong belief in God, Culture, country, ... will automatically make them self confident and will lead to progress. Which will eliminate the problems for the society. He subscribes to the beliefs, that he thinks are birth right to him. He is strong Hindu, He is strong Indian, Strong __, ... At the end he comes to know that his all the beliefs are baseless. He is devastated! The meaning of his existence was closely bound to his beliefs, but there is nothing to believe. What can he survive on? He gains new insights and so do we.

All the women characters are simply great!! Which is very characteristic of Tagore and Sharad Chandra.

This book changed me!

I can't believe I've never heard of this book before now. I was very impressed with how concise Feeney describes the details of derivative pricing with regard to settlement value. Most books on derivatives fail to make the distinction between theory and practice. Feeney does this very well.

This book is useful for someone looking to either learn about or brush up on the financial derivatives markets

Wow, wow and more wow! This book totally rocks the house! Talk about some solid partial differential equations... this one really socks it to ya! I couldn't put it down. I wouldn't put it down. I couldn't believe that anyone would write a book as wickedly clever, funny, witty and engrossing as this.

I've read all of Feeney's works... and I mean ALL of them. This one is clearly the best... no question. No question at all. If you want to read some great finance... if you're really ready to enjoy the best there is... then you're ready to read Feeney.

Great ready for the read of your life. Get ready to see the world a different way. Get ready to go really, really deep into the financial corners of your mind. Travel to your limits and push past them to where you thought it was impossible to go. Learn about yourself, learn about the world, learn about what it takes to be a financial guru.

Feeney - the great mind of finance bringing us insights to share with the next generation. Bravo!

Perhaps the most interesting and compelling finance book I've read in decades. Feeney takes even the most complicated ideas and brings them down to levels that even I could understand. Very well written, insightful and full of telling comments on the markets from one of its true masters. I highly, highly reccomend this book to anyone even remotely interested in the world of finance. I, and all of my colleagues who have read the book, can hardly wait for the sequel... sure to be as fabulous as this version. Two Thumbs Up!

This is a great book for those who work in EP and are at an advanced level. It is also good for Cardiololgy fellowing who are interested in EP, or who are in an EP Fellowship program.

I can't say enough good things about this book. It's an easy to read book with many helpful diagrams. It's not a comprehensive EP text (like Zipes or Josephson), but it's excellent for the basics. I have found the diagrams to be extremely helpful in explaining EP topics to other cardiology fellows. I'd recommend this book to all EP trainees.

This is a great book to jump-start your EP education. Nice photos, it is easy to read and it should be purchased by all new EP Lab staff members. At TCA Institute, we recomended this book to all the "Fundamentals of EP Course" attendees. Maha Rinaudo, Ph.D.

The Handbook of Cardiac Electrophysiology is aimed for the cardiology of EP fellow, engineers, technicians, nurses, and others working in field. The book begins with an excellent review of the basic concepts of the electrophysiology procedure as well as the instruments used. This review is very concise and clear. The book progresses to explain the induction and interpretation of supraventricular and ventricular arrhythmias. Each section provides a very organized, clear description of the arrhythmia. In addition, the text is accompanied with excellent illustrations of arrhythmia circuits and EP tracings. The methodology used allows for a clear understanding that can be applied immediately to the EP laboratory experience. The organization of the chapters also allows for quick review. The book concludes with a section on mapping techniques and new technologies that may be encountered in current or upcoming practice. This book is an excellent resource to provide a fundamental understanding of the electrophysiology laboratory. Furthermore, it is organized in a manner to be a constant reference for ongoing learning and review. It is also a valuable resource for those teaching the science; as it presents a very effective manner in which to teach both basic and complex ideas.

Melanie & Snip have presented some wonderful children stories that really leave great evidence of their story telling ability and probably contained the essence of stories their loved ones shared with them. Some of these stories caused me to have flash backs of those delightful childhood experiences we all remember. I'm sure they'll inspire you to reflect in retrospect as well.

The 12 true stories were well written and appealing with great photography and amazing design work. I have to be honest the construct on the book alone is solid with excellent quality to the pages which I'm sure will last a life time. As I think about the thousands of books in my collection I am positive that most of them are not constructed nearly as well as this one is. But I would highly recommend any of their books as I have not been dissappointed by any of them. Not only are they excellent story tellers but they have done an amazing job at publishing this wonderful book. They could have easily split the book into a multiple seller and made more money but then it would have been "Sad Little Stories". I really think that they are quite amazing authors and I'm excited that they're working to give us more fine work like this. Thanks for your time.

Your Servant, Deremiah, *CPE

An awesome book. The stories are long enough to read one per night, and the photography is a really cool way to illustrate them.

This is a great book to read with your kids. It has good stories with a moral and lesson for all ages. Each story is a quick read that adds a nice break from the stress of the day!

Perhaps the best years of living take place between the ages of 5-12. The whole world opens up through reading, writing and learning to express yourself. With these new opportunities come choices and conflicts.

Happy Stories perfectly captures those years with stories that brim with freshness and warmth. Re-live the magic of those years by reading this book yourself. Or pass it on to your young reader and watch how it opens up their hearts and minds to the joys of happy living.

The Healthy Thai cookbook is great for someone like myself-I can cook but not as familiar with Thai cuisine. Also I am interested in keeping the dishes as healthy as possible. This cookbook was a good choice. The pictures were detailed. Many dishes had ingredients that were not only seasonal or regional. The sections were varied enough to find at least two or three dishes from each food category that would appeal to picky eaters.

I am Balinese, have a restaurant and love food. I especially love Thai food.

The recipes in this book are excellent and have obviously all been tested by the author. Follow them and you will not be disappointed.

The presentation is clear at all times and the photographs are superb.

Partcularly helpful are a couple of pages on which wines best accompany Thai food - and they are not those that you would immediately think of. The explanations are interesting and illuminating.

I would recommend this book to restaurant owners, as well as people cooking at home for a few friends.

very tasty. quite healthy. many recipes are quick and easy, too. some ingredients are a little tough to get, but easily substituted. gorgeous pictures.

This book has delicous recipes which are easy to follow (with color pictures of most dishes). The dishes taste like delicous restaurant-grade food and are healthy and easy to prepare.

J. Shep Jeffreys writes from the depths of his personal experience of losing a child, but he also writes from the expertise of having worked as a psychotherapist with families who facing what he and his family have lived with.

Be prepared for what he calls "Cowbells" i.e. to re-experience your own losses as you read this book.

Be prepared for a wake up call to rise the highest standards of sensitivity and integrity in your work with people who are bereaved or who are facing death.

This book is a gift to clinicians and lay people alike. As a counselor working with grieving families for fourteen years, it immediately gave me fresh insight and hands-on tools for working with the complexities of those who are grieving. Each situation for a respective client is unique. This book helped me to think outside the box, and to bring even greater depth to the healing process.

I also believe this book would be directly helpful to those who are personally grieving. It addresses one of the questions that my clients most often bring to sessions: "Is what I am experiencing normal?" This book is laid out in a highly readable and organized fashion. I have a full library of books on the subject, and this is the best one I have seen thus far.

Dr. Jeffreys has written a highly readable, comprehensive book on grief. Not only does he cover grief from an academic viewpoint, he teaches us, the readers, how to "celebrate the dignity and authority of the grieving person" as an "exquisite witness." Helping Grieving People: When tears are not enough helps us to understand that all change contains loss and grief. This book contains personal stories and practical, easy to follow directions for coping with grief and/or helping another. Jeffreys teaches us how to integrate thinking, feeling, and doing. He makes distinctions between the usual (or expected grief process) and complicated grief. He includes exercises and case studies to clarify the material. The book is appropriate for grief counselors and lay people alike. Highly recommended.

This book could easily be called a bible given the depth, breadth and soulfulness of its content. Dr. Jeffreys speaks of the need for the care provider to communicate from the head, hand and heart, and he does just that in this book. It is rare to find a text so full of relevant information, well organized, well presented, and at the same time nurturing the heart of the reader. This makes for an amazing experience. The care provider leaves this book with heightened empathy, with increased love of self and of fellow man, what a unique gift! I have been in practice over 25 years as a psychologist with a specialty in grief, loss, and trauma. I trained with the senior staff of Elizabeth Kubler Ross, MD and I find Dr. Jeffrey's book to be the most comprehensive writing I have ever encountered on this topic. I highly recommend it for everyone, the professional, the friend or family member and each individual, for we are all grieving people at some time , arn't we?

This opened my eyes to new avenues in late antiquity scholarship. This is a MUST OWN for all serious historians of this period.

This opened my eyes to new avenues in late antiquity scholarship. This is a MUST OWN for all serious historians of this period.

Dr. Rohrbacher's seminal work is meticulously researched and wonderfully written. Not only does it contain a wealth of information on the historians of this exciting and dynamic era, but it is also a delight to read. _Historians of Late Antiquity_ will thus be both useful to academics and accessible to general readers.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.

David Rohrbacher's The Historians of Late Antiquity is written with mind-numbing gusto. The prose is elegant, lively, and devilishly clever. Chapter Six, "Olympiodorus," is a real highlight. We history nuts have been waiting for a book like this for quite a while, and the young Dr. Rohrbacher has really stepped up and delivered.

Scholars and laymen will enjoy this magnum opus--I know I did. Buy this book!

I give them to the Volunteers who guide the services in the prisons. I think is a good material.

Clear, concise, and to the point. Full of information I found very helpful. I'm don't agree with everything, but at least I know in those places what the authors think, and in some areas, I'm reconsidering previous opinions. That compares very favorably to some other books I've been reading that are vague and unhelpful.

About homilies as about life in general, it is tempting to feel the need in the 21st century to describe things in terms of success or failure.
The thoughtful homilist must take courage that the most of those at Gettysburg considered the President's address too brief to be adequate for such an occasion.
It is only with the benefit of 21 centuries of hindsight that many would judge that the words of Jesus himself were successful. Paradoxically Jesus' words appear to have been less inspiring to those who actually heard them than they have been to countless millions since! When does success begin?
Homilies Alive clearly and interestingly sets forth basic scaffolding from which the weekly homily may be constructed. No priests or deacons could fail to improve their homiletic skills by following the advice in this more-than-commonsense book.

Clear, concise, and to the point. Full of information I found very helpful. I'm don't agree with everything, but at least I know in those places what the authors think, and in some areas, I'm reconsidering previous opinions. That compares very favorably to some other books I've been reading that are vague and unhelpful.